MI High - The Deep Cover Mission
by McFlyMIHighAddict
Summary: Oscar and Carrie are shocked when Rose is happy to see two invaders in HQ. They turn out to be Blane and Daisy, called by Frank and Lennie because there is a deep-cover mission they are all going to take together. Once they are all undercover, taking different roles and personalities, will they all cope and manage to find and stop SKUL? Rated T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

_This is my first ever fanfiction, so reviews and all help is much appreciated! I don't have a Beta reader, so apologies for any mistakes I have missed. This is a MI High fanfic, some characters (mainly Rose Gupta) are OOC. Slightly AU, the team doesn't change after 'The Lost Hero', instead Carrie, Oscar and Rose carry on as MI High agents. Daisy and Blane are also characters._

_**I don't own MI High.**  
_

It was just another day at St Hopes. Kids were racing around the corridors, teachers were hiding in the staff room and Mrs King was on patrol, trying to regain order. Little did the three MI9 agents at the school know that their ordinary day was going to become extraordinary before lunch had started ...

Carrie was in the gym, waking herself up with press-ups, like she did every morning. A crowd of admiring girls – also known as her friends – were surrounding her, trying to keep up and failing miserably. Oscar was trying to throw Avril, who was following him everywhere pestering him with questions about his family tree – even though her documents had 'disappeared' she would not leave it. Oscar was seriously thinking of asking Frank for a memory device before she looked him up again and replicated the documents – he really didn't want to move again. Rose was sitting in the library, quietly researching. What she was researching nobody knew – she wouldn't tell her team, let alone anyone else, why she turned up at school so early and spent about three hours in the library before the registration bell rang. As this bell sounded out through the school, Carrie and her friends sprinted from the gym to the classroom in the main building, Oscar turned on his heel to walk with Avril into class, and Rose shut her book quietly, before replacing it on the shelf and slipping along to the same classroom that Carrie and Oscar were now in, sitting at their desks and talking to their various friendship groups – Carrie with the gym girls, who worshipped her Olympic-level gymnastics and martial arts, Oscar with Avril, who never left his side if she could help it, and the rest of the girls who considered him to be Adonis reincarnated. Slipping to her desk, Rose sat down, opened her bag and pulled out her book.

Halfway through second period – Science – Rose felt the pencil/communication device in her pocket start vibrating. Not bringing it out in case the red light attracted anyone's attention, Rose desperately tried to think of a convincing excuse for leaving class half way through a period. Deciding to use a dentist's appointment – in case the mission would keep her out of class for a while – she realised that Carrie and Oscar were both already on their way out. Sighing at being the last to get out – again – Rose raised her hand and gained permission to leave from Mrs King.

As she raced up to the 'Caretaker's Store Cupboard', Oscar threw her a slightly amused look, tapping his watch. Rolling her eyes, Rose yanked the light-switch panel back and pressed her thumb to the fingerprint scanner. The light flashed green, the door opened and Carrie pulled the mop/lever that activated the lift. Rose felt the familiar sensation of her stomach being forced up her throat, before the doors opening, only a second or so after Carrie pulled the mop, to reveal her and her team standing there in top-of-the-range spy gear. Running out of the lift towards the computers, the team noticed immediately that there was nobody there. Instead, on each screen was a document that stated that although Frank was busy – 'temporarily detained' was the exact wording – there was a surprise waiting for the team in the Gadget Testing Room. "I really hope this is the good sort of surprise," joked Oscar as the team quickly ran over to the concealed door and Carrie yanked out a hair to get through the DNA coded lock.

Carrie led the way into the room, and for a second they stood there in silence, looking around the bare room for the 'surprise'. Then the door slid open again behind them. Spinning around and assuming defensive postures, Carrie and Oscar didn't notice that Rose had gone white as a sheet as failed to get into her position behind Oscar and next to Carrie. "Who are you?" said Oscar threateningly, "and how did you get into HQ? It's three against two!"

"Oscar…," whispered Rose from behind him, "am I hallucinating?"

Finally realising that Rose was acting strangely, Carrie turned to her teammate and said "If you are talking about two unknown people in HQ, who have evidently hacked both the fingerprint and DNA scanner and who are looking at you as if…as if… Rosie, do you know them?" Not bothering to answer her, Rose sprinted forwards, knocking Oscar aside in an effort to get to her two old teammates.

Pulling out of the group hug after about a minute – which is a long time to hug someone – Rose started the introductions with tears of happiness in her eyes. "Oscar and Carrie, I'd like to introduce my old team, Blane and Daisy, who have been heading up Unit Alpha. Blane and Daisy, this is my new team, Oscar and Carrie." At this, she pulled Daisy back into a hug, who looked a little shocked at seeing Rose so emotional. Oscar and Carrie had relaxed their defensive positions once they were sure that these new people were not enemy agents, and came forwards now to introduce themselves more thoroughly.

"Blane Whittaker," said Blane, shaking hands with Oscar, "Martial Arts. You?"

"Oscar Cole," replied Oscar, "Deep cover."

"So tell me," said Blane in a stage whisper, "Is Rosie Red always that emotional these days?" Hearing this, Rose whipped around and elbowed Blane in the ribs.

"I told you not to call me that!" she mock-angrily said, but blew it by hugging him around the waist as she said it. Over her head – both boys were easily two heads taller than her – Oscar replied "I've never seen her like this before – you must have meant a lot to … what was it … Rosie Red." Before grinning and pinning her hands behind her back as 'Rosie Red' broke off her hug to try and attack him instead.

Carrie and Daisy were already getting on like a house on fire, talking about fashion, missions, boys and spy gadgets. Blane and Oscar had also struck it off, talking about their different experiences with the spy world. Rose looked pleased that her old and new team had made friends so quickly, and was the perfect link between the two different pairs – boys and girls. Around half an hour after meeting each other, the happy chat was interrupted by a loud cough from the door. Spinning around again, Rose saw Frank and Lennie standing in the doorway, grinning happily at the sight they saw. "Lennie!" she squealed, and ran forwards to hug her ex-mission leader gently, avoiding his bad hip. "It's lovely to see you too Rose. But shouldn't we start some work?" He raised his voice t the last bit, catching all the agent's attention and causing them to look awkward and mumble "Yes…". Chuckling, Frank led the way back into the main HQ.

"Your mission is very dangerous, and requires all of you working together as one team. " said Lennie. "You are going to infiltrate an orphanage and try to find out what the connection is between it and SKUL. We believe that it is used as a kind of training ground for prospective SKUL agents – over 10 of the children who have left in the past year have ended up working for the Grand Master. You are all going to move into Penhallow Orphanage one at a time, a month after each other. This should be Oscar's special mission – it is very deep cover. The first to infiltrate the orphanage will probably be living there for about a year."

"A _year?_" squeaked Carrie, looking at the two mission operators in disbelief. "How on earth are we all going to explain to our families that we are disappearing for a year?"

"Well technically, Carrie, only two of you need to be excused from your families for a year. Daisy and Blane have been living away from home since they left MI High anyway, and Oscar lives with an agent who only needs to know he will be going on a long mission. For you and Rose, the school have set up a very long exchange programme. Rose will be moving to Canada for a year at the University of Toronto, where they have specially 'invited' her to use their world-famous labs. Carrie, you are going to a training university for future Olympians. They have requested you join for a year free of charge."

The two girls looked baffled at the elaborate covers they were being provided with. On the screen, they could see Frank sending letters to their parents from the 'University of Toronto' and the training university. "All you girls have to do is go home and tell your parents what a wonderful opportunity you have been given." Nodding wonderingly at what their team could achieve, the girls stepped back into line with Daisy, Blane and Oscar.

"This better have some ultra-cool and undetectable gadgets, Lennie," said Blane, glancing at Oscar who grinned over, saying "I was about to say the same thing."

"It does," replied Frank, looking excited as his department moved into the spotlight. "For Rose, we have the communicator bookmark. You don't need to hold it to your ear or anything – talk near it and it will pick up the sound waves and transport them back to HQ. So that Lennie and I can contact you, it has a hidden screen that can only receive text. To reveal the screen, you pull that tassel there," for the bookmark was designed like a Turkish carpet and the edges were covered in tassels, "and a screen pops out. To put it back, you simply push it."

"Wow, thanks Frank," said Rose, looking pleased with her new gadget.

"Daisy and Carrie, your gadgets are the same, only look different. Carrie, you have a medal – one that you allegedly won at the UK Young Gymnastics Competition. It works in the same way as your pencils do. Daisy, your communicator is disguised as a hair-clip. For safety, since you will be going into a potential SKUL base, control will not call you. To be safe, you have to call us. I would prefer it if at least one of you were to check in each day."

"You haven't given us any gadgets," said Oscar, indicating himself and Blane.

"Quite right. Blane, you have a laser cutter – normal deal, can cut through anything – disguised as a packet of chewing gum. Oscar, you have a packet of the same gobstoppers you used when you went to the SKUL Academy – only stronger. Instead of slowing the body down, they now freeze it for half an hour, and conveniently then put the person to sleep, wiping their memories about what caused them to lose consciousness. They will be useful if you have to make a quick escape, although I really hope that that isn't necessary."

"Team, Rose will be moving into the orphanage in three days time. Oscar will follow her in two weeks, Carrie four weeks after that, Blane two weeks after Carrie and Daisy two weeks after Blane. I'm sorry for the delay for the rest of you, but it was vital that we stagger your entry into the orphanage. One more thing. You must not all appear to know each other, you must not appear to become instant friends. To all intents and purposes, you have never met before you move into the orphanage. It is not advisable that you all become friends at all – spilt into many different friendship groups and so that people rarely associate you with each other. This will help anyone from suspecting you as a group. Now, back to lessons – it is quite possible that you will have training for this mission in the coming weeks so prepare some excuses for leaving class. You only have one chance to use the toilet excuse Rose, no more. Off you go then."

"Yes Frank," the new and larger team replied, before they all moved into the lift.

"Wait, Oscar. A private word please" said Lennie, and looking puzzled, Oscar left the lift just as the doors shut on his old and new teammates.

"Don't you think this is a dangerous mission for me to go first on, given my unstable loyalties and SKUL mother?" asked Oscar sarcastically, wondering why he had been held back.

"No, not at all, Oscar. To the contrary. I think that you will excel on this mission and unlike Chief Operative Stark, I have full confidence in you. There is no harm on this particular mission that can be caused by you doing things your way, which I believe is what you told Stark over communicator both when you were Tim Brown and when you went to infiltrate SKUL – both times you had a massive success. Oscar, please do not doubt my faith in you."

"Thanks, Frank, that means a lot." Said Oscar, genuinely meaning it as his mission operator expressed faith in his sometimes unorthodox methods. "But why have you held me back?"

"I want to give you a little extra responsibility on this mission, although it is not something that will affect the enemy directly. You are the only agent on this team who specialises in deep-cover – due to that I am giving you the responsibility to check on how your teammates are coping. The orphanage will be a stressful environment for them, and I cannot expect that all of them will handle it as well as you will. To that end, I am going to give you a copy of the Alice band we used on Mrs King. It will…"

"Help me determine their brain state and how they are coping with the mission. Frank, that's great, are you sure I'm the right person to give it to?"

"Oscar, I am positive. But you need to stop doubting yourself before you ask others to stop doubting you. Remember – the whole team, Carrie and Rose especially, would trust you with their lives." On that cheerful note, Frank handed Oscar a hair band like Mrs King's, only thinner and more flexible. There was a tiny screen concealed on the underside of it, which would show the reading of the agent's brain state. Grinning at his mentor, who had expressed such faith in him, Oscar headed for the lift.

_Well, that's the first chapter! Please review and let me know what you think. Chapter 2 should be up soon. _


	2. Chapter 2

_Hi Everybody! Thanks to everybody who reviewed Chapter 1. Just to make something a bit clearer - in my version of MI High, at this time Rose is 14 while the other agents are all 16. This just makes the rest of the story flow better. Again, reviews are very welcome!  
Here's Chapter 2!_

_**I do not own MI High or any of the characters, nor do I claim to.**_

For the next three days, Rose was in a frenzy of getting ready. Not that moving to the SKUL orphanage required it – Lennie and Frank had made that incredibly easy for her - she was in frenzy, as she was allegedly getting ready to go to the 'University of Toronto' and her parents were also incredibly excited for her. Rose was studying more than ever – getting straight A's her family expected at a world-famous university was going to be harder than getting them at St Hope's – and the team barely saw her as she studied her mission briefing before school, after school and during breaks. Not even Frank followed her down into HQ every time.

Rose's joy at seeing her old teammates was diminishing only very slowly, and in the meantime they had made great friends with Carrie and Oscar. The boys were always comparing notes on missions and had become great friends – Blane already knew about Oscar's family history, and while it could be argued that Oscar told him because they were spending a deep cover mission together where it was best to know your teammates very well, Rose felt that it was something more than that – trust. It had taken Oscar a while to trust her and Carrie with that information, but it had only taken him two days to tell Blane.

On the morning of the third day, Rose left her house before her parents had even woken up. She left a note on the table saying goodbye, and at only 5.30 in the morning she walked up to the school gates with three big bags in her hands. Immediately making her way down to HQ, she dumped all these in a corner, unpacking only her favourite books (with the bookmark in one of them) and some hair bands. This took a while, as she had a separate bag for her books – it looked as though she was bringing a library with her! Frank had packed everything else that she would need into a much smaller and tattier suitcase, suitable for her cover story. Rose was playing Rose Patel, a shy young girl whose parents had died in a mountaineering accident only a week ago. Her family had never been very well-off, and so she didn't have many possessions past her clothes that she wanted to bring to the orphanage.

At seven, the lift doors opened to reveal all the team coming to wish Rose good luck. "You be careful out there Rosie Red," said Blane, his voice only very slightly teasing when he said her nickname, "there's no-one to protect you for two weeks."

"Thank you for the concern, Blane, but I do not need protecting," said Rose's voice, muffled due to the fact Carrie and Oscar were hugging her as if their lives depended on it.

"Can't hurt to have a partner, Rosie Red, don't forget to check in often," said Oscar, coining Blane's nickname for their youngest and smallest teammate. At that moment Frank cam in, dressed as a council lawyer in a smart suit, indicating to Rose that it was time to go. Disentangling herself from the group hug, Rose picked up Rose Patel's suitcase and walked to the lift with her mentor.

Once Rose had left, the remaining four spies started chatting down in HQ, reluctant to go back to class. "So Blane, why do you call Rosie 'Rosie Red'?" asked Oscar, a grin on his face.

"Well when we were all in training, one lunch we played Truth or Dare. Rose's truth was to tell us her most embarrassing nickname. Turns out her mum called her Rosie Red when she was little, and she made us promise not to tell anyone. Unfortunately for her, she didn't make us promise not to use it…" Blane grinned wickedly and did his best evil-villain-laugh impression. Daisy shoved him, making him stop abruptly, and hissed "Blane, they already think you're mad, don't make it any worse for yourself!" Giggling, Carrie and Daisy shared a glance that clearly said 'Boys.'

"Does Rosie seem any different to you? As in different to when you were a team before?" Carrie asked Daisy, wanting to know what the old Rose Gupta was like.

"Yeah, she does. More emotional, definitely! But maybe that's because we haven't seen each other in so long… otherwise, she seems quite a lot quieter, and since when did she start getting to school so early?"

"Since Oscar and I first arrived, she's been at school earlier than everyone else, but it's getting earlier and earlier." Walking over to the screens, Carrie quickly and expertly hacked into the school surveillance system. "So the morning before you arrived, she was here at… whoa, she was here at 5.30! What on earth possessed her to get out of bed that early? And look Daisy – she's been here at 5.30 for days and days and weeks!"

"What needs so much research? That is such a Rose thing to do, I bet she's over studying for some project or report Mr Flatley's asked her to do."

"No, I don't think so…but I'll zoom in on what she's reading.`' Quickly manipulating the video in front of her, Carrie enlarged the image, while Daisy brought Rose's early starts to the boys' attention. Walking over, they all crowded behind Carrie's chair as the image grew, to reveal Rose reading a book about the history of Macedonia. Hushing Oscar, who was pointing out that he spoke Macedonian, as well as the other common languages used there, Carrie enlarged and enhanced the picture. She knew that she was being nosy and that Rose would not be doing anything bad – researching was what she was good at – something was bothering her. Sure enough, the resulting picture of Rose's face showed that she was crying. Not hard, but crying nonetheless. Quickly flicking through the other days Rose had been in so early, Carrie realised that in all of them, she was reading seemingly random books, and in all of them, she was crying.

The four spies spent until break time discussing this, worried about Rose and wondering what she was crying about on so many days. Then they heard the bell, and quickly got into the lift. A second later, dressed in school uniform in various states of smartness, the four walked out of the caretaker's cupboard and grinned at each other. Carrie whispered "Its nice to have a bigger team," as they all trooped off to Mr Flatley's office to explain that the reason they were late is that they had been seeing Rose off to the University of Toronto. As they had expected, Mr Flatley had no trouble with that at all, gushing instead about a 14 year old being invited to spend a year there from his school, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'That will show Mrs King."

That day at lunch break, Daisy and Blane were standing in the playing grounds listing the ways in which St Hope's had changed since they were there. Daisy's main one was "Less order", and Blane's was "That freaky woman who thinks she's Headmistress". Then they started joking – "They fixed the door I lasered down on our first mission," "There are no army people running an army day," "There are no turtles creeping around with truth serum on their backs"

"Talking of the truth serum…" said Blane looking at his teammate craftily, "were you about to say that you fancied me before Lennie gave you the antidote?"

"No!" said Daisy, her sudden blush telling a different story. "We're…we're teammates, nothing more…"

"S'alright, Daisy flower," chuckled Blane, amused at her obvious confusion. "I feel the same way – or I wouldn't have asked you." Smiling, he reached for her hand and entwined his fingers with hers.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3! Please review :)_

**_I only own the plot, nothing else._**

Once Rose arrived at the orphanage, she pulled on her cover as Rose Patel. Shyly following Mr Harold (Frank's cover) into a shabby office, she was waved to sit by the forbidding house matron Miss Moscow. Answering the questions she was asked quietly with one or two syllable answers, Rose told Miss Moscow about her supposed background – used to attend Knee-high High School, was a grade-A student moved up two years, and was an only child – as the lady made notes. Frank was sitting beside her the whole time, and occasionally Miss Moscow threw a question at him too – about the deaths of her parents, the legality of sending her to the orphanage and many others besides. After about an hour, Miss Moscow seemed satisfied, and she thanked Mr Harold for bringing Rose, saying that she could take it from here. Frank them formally shook Rose's hand, then Miss Moscow's, before leaving Rose in the suspected SKUL camp.

Meekly following Miss Moscow up the corridor, Rose used her training to take in every detail of both what the large lady was telling her and what she could see. The orphanage was obviously not well funded. The paint was peeling, and peeking into classrooms as they went by Rose could see that everything was smashed up. After about a three minutes walk, Miss Moscow opened the door to a small room, containing a bunk bed and two small and scruffy desks, as well as a chest of drawers with drawers that would not shut properly.

"This will be your room, Rose. I'm afraid you don't have a roommate yet – you make the total number of children odd. But we're expecting another boy quite soon – Oscar someone-or-other. He'll share with you – we don't have the funds to abide by single-sex roommates for everyone." She said this all very briskly and fast. "I'll leave you to settle in then." Miss Moscow sailed out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind her.

Alone at last, Rose took the opportunity to look around her new room. There was barely space to move. After ascertaining that the room was not bugged or under surveillance, Rose sent a quick message to Frank – "Hi Frank, Rose here. I'm in. No roommate – it's going to be Oscar – and I start school tomorrow. Bye." Rose then started unpacking her small bag, laying her books on one of the desks and her pyjamas on her bed. Once she was done, Rose curled up on her bunk – the top one – with a book, and read until dinner.

At 7.00, a tall boy with messy red hair barged into Rose's room, shouting "Miss says I'm to take the newbie down to dinner cos she doesn't know the way…what you doing?" Transforming instantly into Rose Patel, Rose quietly said "Just reading. Thank you for coming to show me the way. "

"Why're you reading? Reading's for school and geeks. And I didn't have a choice you know – Miss told me to. Can't say no to Miss." Rose blushed deeply and clambered down of the bunk bed, before following her guide out of the small room down to the dining room.

Dinner was being served with industrial efficiency. Children took a tray and were served a large dollop of everything by the dinner ladies. There was no choice on what you could have – it was a scoop of everything or nothing. This was the only orderly part of the room though. In the main eating area, there were kids clambering and sitting on the tables, teachers shouting for order and being ignored, and food flying through the air. Weaving her way through the confusion, having been completely abandoned by her guide as soon as she entered the room, Rose found a tiny table in the corner that was unoccupied. Sitting down, she began to eat the less-than-gourmet food and opened her book again. No sooner than she had read a few pages, however, she realised that she had visitors. Shutting the book quickly, she looked up from her food to see the red-haired boy and several other children looking down at her. "Hello," she said, trying to convince herself that they just wanted to meet the new girl.

"Boys," she heard the red head announce, "This is the newbie. Rose Something,"

"Patel," she whispered

"Rose Patel. Well like I was saying, she's new here. And guess what? She reads. When she doesn't have to. She was reading when Miss sent me to get her for dinner. Just lying on her bed reading."

"What's wrong with that?" asked Rose, again blushing. She already knew of course – these were the bullies, she was new and a LOT smaller than them – and desperately wanted to demonstrate her full nelson of karate moves Blane and Carrie had taught her to show these thugs that small truly could be mighty. But she had to keep in character, and Rose Patel was more likely to jump off a mountain than become a martial arts expert.

"What's wrong with that she says," chuckled the red head, who was evidently the leader. "What's wrong with that, shrimp, is that I don't approve of reading. Frys your brain. So I would strongly advise you, shrimp, to hand over your book before you become brain dead."

Rose shivered. "I will not hand over my book," she said quietly but firmly. "It's mine."

"I said," the boy repeated in a threatening voice, "Give it here." Shaking her head again, Rose tried to pull the book into her chest to protect it, but two of the boys each grabbed on of her arms and twisted them behind her back, making her cry out in pain and drop the book. Sniggering, the red head picked it up. "So what do we have here? 'A Well-Ordered Thing – Dmitri Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table'. Who the hell is this Mendeleev guy?"

"He created the first Periodic Table. He's a genius." Said Rose, trying to get her book back.

"Never heard of him, so can't have done anything that special. Shrimp, I'm confiscating this book for a while…let's say until I feel like giving it back. How's that sound?" He then grinned as a tear trickled down Rose's cheek, before spinning around and leading his posse away from her table. Rose quickly picked up her nearly-full tray, deposited it on the rack and left the dining room, heading quickly back to her room.

The next day, Rose put on the smartest clothes in the suitcase Frank had given her - she wanted to make a good impression on her new teachers - and headed down to the schoolroom Miss Moscow had pointed out the day before. Inside stood a worn-out looking teacher, with long black hair pulled into a messy ponytail and a long red skirt. She started when Rose knocked on the door before silently pushing it open. "Oh my dear, you gave me quite a fright. Now you must be Rose Patel, new here?" Rose silently affirmed this. "Well isn't that nice. I must say, the letter your old school sent us – Knee-High High School wasn't it – was exemplary! A straight A student, I hear! Even after having been moved up two years!" Rose blushed, looking at the floor. "Well, this place could use some talent. You can have the desk at the back my dear, the one by the window. I trust I don't need to keep my eye on you! By the way, my name is Miss Franklin – appropriate for a science teacher!"

"Yes miss," whispered Rose, heading to the desk Miss Franklin had pointed out and sinking into the chair. Pulling out another book – this time a biography of George Clooney – she read until the bell for classes started, when she slid her book into her bag and looked around, puzzled at the lack of students in the room. Miss Franklin grinned when she saw this. "There's no need to stop reading, dear. I expect the other students will be along in around 10 minutes." Shocked at the lack of discipline that allowed children to be 10 minutes late to class and the teacher not to mind, Rose looked disbelievingly at the teacher. "Yes, dear, I know, it must be quite different here from your old school. Nevertheless, the children will do what they want, and I find it best to just allow them to turn up when Miss Moscow chases them in – she is the only teacher who scares them! We could start some other work if you wanted to?" Nodding eagerly, Rose wondered what the teacher could be talking about. One of the main points about Rose Patel's character that Frank had given her was that she was vastly intelligent – that was what was meant to attract SKUL scouts to her. So Rose had to keep the lid off the formidable vat of intelligence inside her, and allow the teachers to see what an excellent brain she had inside her. "Well Rose dear, what is your favourite science?

"Chemistry miss," said Rose, not embellishing as she stayed firmly in the shell she had created around herself since arriving at Penhallow's.

"Mine too! I find all the chemicals and reactions quite fascinating. Tell you what – if you fancy a challenge, how about you learn the first 20 elements for me? I'll test you next week…"

Shyly interrupting, Rose said "I'm sorry miss, but I already know the first 20 elements."

"Really? That's wonderful! Finally I have a student with brains! Alright, how about the first 40?"

"Sorry to be rude, miss, but I know them too. I know the whole Periodic Table."

Miss Franklin looked at her in disbelief. "Are you sure Rose?" When Rose nodded, she asked "Do you mind if I test you? Not that I don't trust you, just to check? Thank you… so what is the 49th element?"

To prove a point, Rose recited "The 49th element is Indium, group 13 period 5, discovered in 1863, melting point 156.6 degrees." Miss Franklin looked as though she was about to faint.

"So it's true…we finally have some brains here! Rose, when did you learn this?"

"I first memorised the Table when I was six, miss," whispered Rose, worried that she had gone too far in revealing her brains.

"I don't believe it…I can't believe it. Rose, I'm sure you already know but you are a very special girl. I can't think of anyone else who knew the whole Periodic Table at the age of six!" Rose smiled at the teacher, faintly tempted to tell the enthusiastic teacher about all the times the country's fate had rested on her knowledge of the sciences and technology. Miss Franklin smiled back. "I'm not sure I'll be able to teach you that much, Rose! Not if you kept going at that rate!" said Miss Franklin.

"Don't worry miss, I know that you will. Knowing the Table isn't everything, after all."

"True, true, but it is clear that you have the most remarkable ability Rose. This is very interesting, we must explore this further…but here are your classmates. Finally." At this Miss Franklin returned to her desk and stood behind it, trying to restore some calm into the shouting crowd of students. After 5 minutes, they were all relatively quiet, and she began.

"Everyone, I would like you to meet your new classmate, Rose Patel, who joined us yesterday. Rose, will you please stand up and tell us a little about yourself?" Rose looked terrified. She was meant to be withdrawn and lonely, in mourning for her parents. So she stood up slowly and quietly said

"My name is Rose Patel, I used to go to Knee-High High School, and I like Science and my parents … my parents died last week." With that she dropped back into her chair and hid her face in her hair, which she had pulled down.

"I'm so sorry, Rose. Thank you for sharing. Now everyone, today we will be learning about the Periodic Table. Maximilian, perhaps you will tell us what that is…" the lesson began, and Rose put her head down on her desk and didn't listen much. When she was asked a question – Miss Franklin seemed to be trying to show off her brains to the class – she answered as simply and as quickly as she could. Already, she couldn't wait for Oscar to turn up, even if she couldn't openly be friends with him. At least she'd have someone to talk to occasionally.


	4. Chapter 4

After the class was over, Maximilian, who turned out to be the red head, and his friends, walked over to Rose and began rummaging through her bag. "Hey!" she protested, trying to tug it back from the much taller boys. "Stop it!"

"Not likely, shrimp. We're looking for something, see. And here it is." He held up her other book. "Again, shrimp? Seems we haven't got through to your brain yet. I suppose I'll have to confiscate this too." Sighing dramatically, he handed the book to one of his group before turning back to her. "Now that that's out of the way, shrimp…" he suddenly grabbed one of her arms and brutally twisted it behind her back. It took all Rose's willpower to stop herself from snapping his arm using her spy skills. Instead, she allowed tears to come to her eyes again and uselessly tried to tug her arm away.

"Ow, that really hurts…please stop it…what did I do to you?"

"It's more the fact that you exist, if you know what mean?" laughed the boy, twisting her arm even harder. Using it as a lever, he pushed her down until she was sitting on the floor in the middle of the crowd of boys. Finally, he released her arm, and she rubbed her shoulder slowly, looking warily up at the boys. As soon as she tried to stand up, they pushed her back down, until she gave up and curled in a ball on the floor. Cackling, Max kicked her shins painfully before Rose heard the group all move off. Waiting until it was safe, she uncurled before standing up to see an empty classroom.

During break, Rose stayed in her room. She sent a message to Frank – "Hi Frank, me again. All's good. Can't see any evidence of SKUL, but one strange comment – one teacher said 'very interesting, we must explore this further,' when I showed her my brains, and it didn't feel like she meant 'we' as her and me, but her and someone else. Might be nothing. Rose." She soon received a message back – 'You're doing great. Don't go looking for answers – they will come to you. Oscar will be there in two weeks. Keep in touch." I can last two weeks thought Rose, and she headed out of the room to her net class.

However, this class was exactly the same. She impressed the teacher beforehand, students turned up late, she introduced herself before withdrawing for the whole lesson. Afterwards, Max and his gang would search her bag for books, kick her hard on the shin, and leave. By the end of the day, Rose was limping. Somehow, they always managed to hit the same spot on her leg. Another bruise to add to her collection.

The week passed slowly, and Rose's reputation as the quiet girl with a freaky amount of brains who was hated by Max's group became known. Generally people steered clear of her, and past Miss Franklin's quizzing before every lesson, there was nothing more to point towards SKUL activity. Life fell into a steady routine, which was not unpleasant besides the daily tormenting by Max and his boys. Rose sent daily reports to HQ, which wasn't hard since she had no-one sharing her room. All in all, life at the Penhallow Orphanage wasn't bad. But then Max's group started becoming much more physical in their bullying. In the second week of her being at the orphanage, Rose was beaten up almost daily. Not to the extent that she couldn't walk, but she was in pain from her many bruises almost constantly. Rose would cry herself to sleep, not because of the lack of SKUL activity, but because she was experiencing what bullying was really like. Not the sort of teasing that Scoop and his posse had engaged in, but the sort that made her feel as though she was worthless. Rose was terrified that she was going to let her team, and MI9, down. SKUL was hardly going to be interested in the bullied little girl in the corner.

Finally, her first two weeks at the orphanage were over. Rose received a text from Oscar, saying that he was leaving HQ and would be there by dinner. Overjoyed that she would finally have a teammate, albeit one that could not acknowledge that he knew her, she almost didn't notice the hurtful comments hurled her way by Max and his group. By dinner, she was studying every face that passed her, looking for Oscar, even though she knew he would be being shown around by Miss Moscow.

Rose was on her way down to the dining room when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Spinning around, expecting Oscar's wide and caring grin, she was instead greeted with Max's sneer. She should have known. Oscar wouldn't reveal that he knew her, he was a deep-cover expert. Knowing what was coming, Rose backed into the wall, expecting punches and kicks.

She was not disappointed.

The tall boys in Max's gang were surrounding her, making it impossible to see her from the outside unless you were either crawling on the floor or incredibly tall. Finally, after what seemed like hours, but was in reality probably only minutes, the boys left her lying there on the floor. Unable to face dinner, Rose turned around and painfully made her way back up to her room. Collapsing on her bunk – she now wished she had chosen the lower one – she fell into a deep, unhappy sleep.

Miss Moscow, a large lady who looked and behaved remarkably like Mrs King, greeted Oscar outside the building. His cover was Oscar Wilde, a likeable and charming boy who had never known his parents. His old orphanage had shut down, leaving him to find another place. Oscar was meant to be immediately likeable to everybody, and to this end he charmed Miss Moscow almost as soon as he met the formidable lady by being very polite and friendly. She showed him to his room, which, she explained, he was sharing with a girl. This was due to a lack of funding that made single-sex rooms impossible to organise. "Of course, Miss, I understand," he said politely, as she paused and looked at him as if she were expecting him to be upset.

"The girl you will be sharing with is very … withdrawn. The teachers have been trying to get her out of her shell, she seems to have incredible brains, but to no avail. Perhaps you will be able to help get her to interact with people a bit more than her books. I think she could really use a friend - due to her amazing marks she will be in your class although she is, I think, two years younger than you, and she doesn't seem to have any yet." Oscar knew by this description that Rose was doing her job well, and had piqued the interest of the people running the orphanage – and therefore maybe SKUL, if they were indeed here. Mrs Moscow rapped on the door before opening it, to reveal a small room with two battered desks, one of which was covered in papers and books, a chest of drawers and a bunk bed. "Ah, Rose must be down at dinner. Have you had any yourself?"

"Yes thank you miss, I'll be fine to wait here until she gets back," said Oscar politely. He did not want to reveal his skills immediately by saying "Actually miss, Rose is curled up, asleep on the top bunk, as you would be able to see if you looked at the shadow on the wall." Miss Moscow beamed at him and withdrew, shutting the door firmly behind her. Once she was gone, Oscar dumped his bag on the lower bunk and climbed up half of the stairs to Rose's bed.

"Rose…Rose, wake up sleepy….guess who's here Rose…" he sang, shaking her gently. Slowly her eyes opened and a single tear slid down her face. Then she recognised him sitting at the end of her bed.

"OSCAR!" she half-shouted, causing him to clamp his hand over her mouth. Once he was sure she understood that she had to be quiet, he removed it, to unleash a torrent of questions. "How are you? How is everyone else? How is…" her next question was cut off as she threw herself at him and buried her face in his chest. Glad that he had moved to sit on her bunk, he held her to him, wondering why she was still so emotional. This wasn't very like Rose. He started to rub her back to calm her down, but she suddenly stiffened and tensed in his arms. Wondering what he had done wrong, he looked down at her face, to see her teeth clenched in apparent pain.

"Rosie, what is it?" he whispered, trying to think how she could have hurt her back. She shook her head, mumbling against him "Nothing, just a bruise, nothing…"Not entirely believing her, Oscar nevertheless took her word for it, and laid her back down on her bed. She snuggled against him slightly, and Oscar looked at her in shock. This was a totally new Rose – one that was okay with physical contact. The old Rose would not have let him this near her unless it was to save one of their lives. Gently prying her away from him, he realised that she was already asleep again. Chuckling as he realised that the detailed catch up would have to wait for a bit until she woke up, he covered her with the blanket before climbing off her bed and beginning to unpack his suitcase.

Oscar Wilde had supposedly lived in an orphanage all his life, so it wasn't surprising that his clothes and possessions were less than top quality. They looked around the same standard as Rose Patel's. One accessory that Oscar unpacked looked like it should belong to Rose, not Oscar – a black velvet Alice band. Deciding that now was as good a time as any to test out Frank's invention, Oscar pulled it out and reached up, sliding it over Rose's head. Leaving it there for a few seconds, he then removed it and turned it over so that the small hidden screen was visible.

Then he nearly dropped it.

Rose's mental heath, according to the device, was only 40%. That was dangerously low for someone even when they weren't on a deep-cover mission. Frantically searching through Rose's pile of books, he found the communicator/bookmark and called HQ. Luckily, Frank was there. "Hi Frank. I'm in, all fine, cover's going great. One problem. Just used that gadget you gave me on Rose. She's at 40%. That's not good, is it? Did you test it on her before she left? Because then we could know if there was a drop after the mission started or if it was like this before too…"

"Oscar! Are you serious? ONLY 40%? That's bad alright. You need to keep a close eye on her. Look out for anything that might be lowering her mental health."

"I will Frank. Over and out." Shutting the communication off, Oscar looked up at the bed. "What's happened to you Rosie?" he sighed.

The next day, Oscar saw Rose's cover in action for the first time. He had to admit she was good - better than he had expected. She showed him down to the dining room, shyly making small talk as though they had never met before. He replied in a good-humoured way, keeping up his own cover. When they got down, she showed him where everything was, before inviting him to sit with her. Accepting, he led the way over to the small table she pointed out. Discreet and not attention seeking.

Perfect for her cover.

As soon as they had sat down, Oscar started asking friendly questions about the schoolwork, her old family and how she found it here. Rose answered quietly and shyly, not looking at him and keeping very firmly in a shell. It was obvious to Oscar that she was not going to let their mission down by falling out of character in a public place. Halfway through her meal, however, she stiffened suddenly. Oscar looked in the same direction as her and saw a group of boys advancing on their table, lead by a tall red head. Glancing around, he saw that Roe had looked down at her plate, her face white. Then the boys reached the table. "So who are you?" sneered the red head, directing his question at Oscar.

"Oscar Wilde. You?" replied Oscar, standing up.

"Max Range. Thought I'd give you a friendly word of warning. Don't hang around the shrimp. Her weirdness might be contagious! If it is, you'll be walking around with your nose in a book the whole time, wearing out your brain." Oscar thought desperately. This was could easily be part of what was wearing down Rose's mental state. But at the same time, the mission briefing stated that he needed to make friends with a different group of people to Rose, to try and cover more ground. His heart wrenching at what he knew he had to do, Oscar turned back to Max.

"Thanks for the heads up. Where do you suggest I sit instead then?"

"Well…" Max was obviously wondering if he could trust this new boy, "you could always come and sit with me and my gang."

"Thanks, I'd love to. See you … shrimp" sneered Oscar, standing up and looking down at Rose as if she were dirt.

Max led the posse over to his table. Sitting down, he gestured Oscar to the seat on one side of him and a black haired boy to the other. "So Oscar," he said, analysing the well-built boy, "how come you know shrimp?"

Oscar shrugged. "I don't really," he said, "only met her last night. Roommates."

"Ooof, hard luck," whistled Max, glaring over to the corner. "You wont be getting much conversation out of her. The only friends she has are her damned books. I've already confiscated six but she just keeps getting more – where from I don't know."

"I think she brought them all with her," said Oscar, playing along with the sneering attitudes of the boys. "Her desk in our room is completely covered in them – I can hardly understand the titles of most of them."

"We can't have that, can we boys?" chuckled Max evilly. "Shrimp has a load more books? Well we can't go in there to get them out, Miss'd eat us for breakfast. Unless…" here he turned to Oscar "You could get them out. You're her roommate after all! Yes, that's what we'll do. Every day, you sneak a book into her bag. We search it, I confiscate the book. Eventually, she won't have any left, and will come to get them back. That should be fun…" All the boys around the table were grinning at the master plan put forwards by their leader. Oscar played along easily enough. He'd had a lot of practise in being men and nasty – after all, he had infiltrated SKUL twice - but inside he was furious at these thugs for bullying his little Rosie, and at himself for not being there to protect her. She was only 14 - a kid really. She didn't belong here, however many back flips and cartwheels she could do while breaking into MI9 Headquarters.


	5. Chapter 5

_Here's the next chapter! As always, reviews are really appreciated :)  
**I don't own MI High**  
_

In lessons, Oscar was assigned a seat next to Max, at the back of the room. He saw Rose in the same row as him, in the corner, sitting quietly without chatting to anybody. Turning on his charm, Oscar had soon persuaded the Geography teacher to not give the class homework, gaining him a lot of popularity almost instantly. Even Max looked at him, impressed at his charisma. The only person who did not join in the celebrations at the lack of Geography homework was Rose, who still sat quietly in her corner desk , only speaking when she was directly asked a question and then answering in the shortest way she could. Oscar was both impressed and worried by how well Rose was holding her cover. Impressed because he had never thought that little Rose would be a great actress, and worried because he was beginning to think that her act might not all be acting.

At lunch, Oscar hung around with Max and his gang. They seemed to be the perfect SKUL wannabes, and were certainly nasty enough. But nothing too horrible happened – just banter and some gentle pushing around – until near the end of lunch. Then Rose slipped out of the main building and across the concrete square called a playground, clearly heading to her next lesson. Max nudged Oscar and pointed her out. Grinning, Oscar nodded, a sinking feeling in his stomach. He already knew what role he was going to have to play if he wanted to stay in the gang - which seemed the most logical thing to do to help the mission.

He was going to have to bully Rose.

Max swaggered up to the doors of the school building and leaned against them. Mirroring his movements, Oscar blocked the other door, and the posse grouped around them. The message they were sending to Rose was clear. No one was getting through the doors.

When she saw the human barrier they had created, Rose immediately started and turned around, heading back to the main building. But Oscar shouted 'Hey, wait up!" and motioned for two of the boys to go and catch her. They obeyed him without question. It was clear now – Oscar was Max's new second-in-command.

Rose had sped up when she heard Oscar's shout, but had not gotten far before the two boys each grabbed one of her arms. One was twisted brutally behind her back, whilst the other boy tugged her back to the group of menacing bullies. Oscar glanced at Max for an indication of whether he should continue or let Max do it. Max gestured to himself, as if to say 'leave this to me', before motioning the boy tugging Rose's arm to let go. The black haired boy – Connor – continued to cruelly twist her arm behind her back

There were tears in Rose's eyes as she looked up at Max, who like Oscar was easily two heads taller than her. Oscar was finding it very hard to keep his cover, and he was surprised by Rose's control in not flipping out and breaking the boy's arm - he was close to doing it himself. But all the fight seemed to have gone out of her eyes.

"So shrimp," said Max, evidently trying to hide the laughter in his voice, "you know Oscar here."

Her eyes panicked, Rose shot a terrified look at Oscar. Knowing what she was thinking, he shook his head almost imperceptibly. Relaxing very slightly, she quietly said "I met him last night."

"Did you really. And do you like him?" Rose looked unsure of what Max wanted her to say.

"I…um…yes, I suppose…he seems nice…" she stuttered.

"Does he really. I think I agree with you, brain-box, which would be the first and probably last time ever. Do you like her, Oscar?"

Oscar knew what he needed to say. "Hmmm…not too sure. Bit small and quiet. Seems to like work too much for someone so young. Do you know how we could change that?"

"Well now you mention it," grinned Max nastily, "I've been thinking. Hey shrimp, how'd you like to do my homework for me?"

"I will NEVER do your homework for you, you evil boy!" yelled Rose. Most of the group looked taken aback. This was clearly the first time Rose had stood up to them.

"Well isn't that too bad. I was looking forwards to it. Ah well, I'll get over it." Suspicious of this backing down without a fight, Rose cautiously raised her gaze from the floor to look at Max. But then he gestured to the boy holding her arm to tighten his grip. Rose let out a soft gasp of pain that went straight to Oscar's heart. Rose was not meant to be here, getting hurt. She was meant to be back in HQ, analysing DNA or something similar. It was always him and Carrie that managed the physical side of things, and before they were there, it was Daisy and Blane. Rose was the technological backup, the main brains behind the team. But what could he do now? Berating himself, he realised that he should have been first into the orphanage, he shouldn't have left Rose on her own for two weeks to cope with these rough kids… but what could he do? Nothing but stand and watch.

Connor continued to tighten his grip on Rose's arm, and she was having trouble not screaming. Tears were running down her face, and Max just stood there talking, a sneer on his face.

"Of course, if you were to agree to do my homework, we could work something out… that involved Connor letting go of your poor little arm…but of course you'll never do that, how silly of me to forget that…such a shame…' and so on, until finally, with a massive gasp, Rose broke down completely.

"Fine. Fine, I'll do your stupid homework. Fine. Now please let me go!"

"Close, but not quite…I promise to let you go if you do both my and Oscar's homework. Deal or no deal?" Connor was nearly breaking her arm behind her back, and Oscar was on the point of intervening, but Rose just let more tears steep out of her eyes, looking as though this was the hardest thing she had ever had to do. In a way Oscar could imagine it was – Rose was admitting that the bullies had won, that they had power over her. The old Rose would never have done anything like that.

"OK, I'll do Oscar's too. Fine," she whispered in a broken voice.

"Good girl. That wasn't so hard, was it? Let her go, Connor." As soon as she was released, Rose crumpled onto the concrete and curled into a ball, crying quietly. Max amusedly shook his head and make a 'tut tut' sound with his tongue, before whistling to the group who followed him into the lesson.

That evening, Oscar went back to his and Rose's room, trying to figure out what had changed in Rose so much. He was aware that it was her cover, but surely not to the extent that she could let herself be hurt that much? She was more than capable of stopping them if she had wanted to. Just as he was about to push open the door, he heard quiet sobs coming from inside the room. In his mind, that settled it. Rose would not be crying inside their own room if nothing was the matter with her and she was just holding up a cover. Pushing in gently, he saw the pitiful sight of Rose curled up on the top bunk, scrunched in the corner and sobbing. Within two seconds, Oscar had vaulted up onto her bunk, not bothering with the ladder, and had his arms around her small frame, trying to calm her down. When she flinched away from him, turning her face to the wall, he realised that it was not going to be easy. After all, he hadn't seen her for two weeks and as soon as he turned up had started bullying her with Max and his scumbag gang.

"Hey, hey, Rosie. Easy there. It's Oscar, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm so sorry about earlier. I was just trying to help the mission. Shhh, calm down Rosie. I promise I won't hurt you." Slowly, Rose's sobs receded and she became silent in Oscar's protective arms. As she finally leant against him, Oscar felt she had forgiven him enough for him to go into more detail. "You know, Rosie, it broke my heart to do that to you. I was so close to breaking all their stupid faces. But you know why I didn't? Because of our mission, Rosie. I'm supposed to make friends with different people to you. You're meant to attract interest through your brains – I'm meant to do it through making friends with everyone. You OK now?" As an answer, Rose snuggled into him, turning her face to him with complete trust in her face. They stayed like that for a good five minutes before Rose raised her head.

"Oscar, I'm sorry. I should have trusted you, but I thought that you…that you and Max…that you really meant it." Her voice cracked at the end.

"Rosie, how could you? I've told you this before, you are my family now. How could I say anything like that to you and mean it? It broke my heart, Rosie, it really did."

"I know now, Oscar." she said, before taking a deep breath and continuing, "Frank gave you another gadget, didn't he? One that would tell how we were coping with deep cover? That's why he held you back? I'm guessing you've already used it on me. And I must have scored pretty low. I would have done before the mission too. But I can't tell you why – it's too hard. But I promise that I wont go berserk or break down. I've been through wor…I mean I can cope. Promise." Surprised yet again at the level of deduction Rose was showing – even though logic and brilliant thinking was her department – Oscar cuddled her close, aware that she was trusting him not to hurt her. Not necessarily physically – already Oscar could tell that he probably wouldn't be able to avoid that – but mentally. Rose was starting to trust Oscar not to bring her down mentally, something that was definitely in his power to do. Only now did Oscar realise how long it took him to give this power to the girls – for him in the form of his mother's betrayal and his father's supposed death. Carrie had told him everything about herself from after their third mission together – that was all it took to let her know that her teammates were good friends that would not ever want to hurt her.

But Rose…even when he wracked his brain, Oscar couldn't think of one time she had told them anything that might be used against her in a significant way. Before he had thought that it was because there wasn't anything - that her friendship was her greatest gift. Now, he wasn't so sure. She wouldn't have told him that she would have scored low on the mental state monitor, that why she would do this was too hard to tell, if there was nothing. Plus, Oscar was sure that she had been going to say 'I've been through worse'. If anyone was hurting his Rosie, he vowed to himself, they were going to pay if Oscar had anything to do with it.

And the three other agents, all of who were very close to Rose … or Rosie Red, for Blane and Daisy.

And the two mission controllers, who had guided them through so many missions and were proud of Rose and her incredible knowledge.

If anything had happened to Rosie, someone would pay.

Later on that night, Oscar and Rose were both doing their homework when there was an abrupt knock on the door. Oscar, whose desk was nearer the door, opened it, to find Connor standing there. Rose immediately flinched and looked down. "Don't worry, shrimp, I'm not here to beat you up," he said in a faux-friendly voice. "There's just a little matter of some work you promised to do for Max…here it is." As he said this, he dumped a pile of books on top of the work Rose was doing. "And Oscar, mate, Max also said to remind you that you don't need to do yours – you seem to have forgotten the promise extended to you too." Oscar immediately assumed the same personality as Connor, sneering at Rose,

"Oh yeah, how could I forget? Here you go, then," as he moved all his books onto Rose's desk and sat back on his bed, smirking. Connor grinned at him, before saying "Mind if I stay a while? Miss is patrolling our corridor so all fun is temporarily banned, even talking above a whisper's forbidden."

"Course, make yourself at home," invited Oscar, shifting on his bed so that Connor could sit down too. While Connor's back was turned, he winked at Rose, and she smiled back. Then he said nastily "Hey, shrimp, I believe someone's got work to do," as Connor turned around.

"Yes, shrimp, listen to your roommate. I can't believe this – how Max made her do three lots of homework without her running to tell a teacher."

"Cool, isn't it," replied Oscar, a horrid smirk set on his face. "Guess the brain-box is clever enough to know that going to tell a teacher, such as nice Miss Franklin or powerful Miss Moscow, will just make things a whole lot worse for herself."

"Yeah. Wonder if she's going to get it all done? It's getting a bit late and Miss is very strict about lights-out no later than ten."

"She'll get it done. Or she'll do it in the dark, won't you shrimp?" said Oscar, raising him voice at the end to get it across to Rose that she had to reply. Giving a small nod, but not turning her head, Rose continued working on Max's Maths homework. The problem, she mused, was not the difficulty of the homework – it was as simple as times tables for her – but the quantity. There was only so fast a hand could write, and she simply might not be able to get through the quantity in time…here her thoughts were broken off rather abruptly as Connor reached forwards, grabbed a handful of her hair and tugged.

"I'm sorry, didn't hear your answer to Oscar's question, shrimp. Will you do the work in the dark if it's not done by lights-out?"

"Yes," she whispered, trying to resist the strong pull on her hair.

"Good," said Connor, releasing her hair and leaning back against the wall. Rose immediately picked her pen back up and continued working through the many books piled on her desk as the boys sat behind her for a good 15 minutes talking. Finally, Oscar stood up.

"Well, Connor, I'm sure Miss has left your corridor and is heading swiftly this way. So if you wouldn't mind, I'm going to bed. Lights out in 10 minutes, shrimp," he threw at Rose as the door shut.

As soon as it was shut and Connor was gone, Oscar quickly moved over to Rose. "You OK Rosie?" he asked tenderly, moving his books off her desk and onto his own, before resuming doing the rest of his work that Rose hadn't got to yet.

"I'm fine, Oscar. Quit worrying, it's really not that bad. It's easy, there's just a lot of it."

"Well, if you're sure. You certainly are a fast worker. Connor was only here, what, 15 minutes and you've already done all Max's work and started mine! Rosie, you didn't have to – you could have moved onto yours."

"No, Oscar, it's better for both our covers this way. They all need to believe that you detest me, and only tolerate sharing a room because you get something out of it – me doing your work. Now, our writing's not dissimilar, so I was thinking. One of the gang will be probably be coming every night to drop of Max's books. So if they come in to find me working on your homework and you lounging around, that will dispel any beliefs that we are working together. It would be a good idea for you to be shouting at me a few times as they come in too," she mused, "or for me to be crying. I can do that."

"Are you sure you're OK with this, Rosie?" asked Oscar, incredulous at the calm manner in which she was putting forwards these suggestions.

"Positive," she said, grinning at him. "I know that you don't mean any of it really."

"You'd better remember that," growled Oscar mock-angrily, and she broke into a fit of giggles, before slamming her last book shut.

"There! Done. Now," she dropped her voice, "we report to Frank and go to bed."

"You're the boss," agreed Oscar, and when she raised her eyebrows at him, "OK, maybe not the actual boss. But you know what I mean."

"Just stop talking to me and call Frank,' she laughed, throwing him the communicator.

"Okay, okay…hey Frank, Oscar here. Yes, everything's fine. No, no one seems to suspect us. Yes, the covers are going great. Yes, we are sharing a room. Yes, Rose is being a model student. No, no. Yes, no, yes. OK, call you tomorrow." He shut the communicator. "Well he knows how to ask questions for sure!" Giggling, Rose held her hands out for the communicator, which Oscar chucked back at her.

"Wish Frank could have seen that, he'd have palpitations!" she laughed at the casual treatment of the expensive gadget. Oscar was so relived to her happy again that he found himself joining in. "Now turn you back or something, I'm getting changed." Obeying his teammate, Oscar turned his back.


	6. Chapter 6

**_I don't own MI High!_**

The next few days passed in much the same manner. The agents woke up and headed down for breakfast together, Rose pretending to be scared stiff of Oscar and carrying his bag for him. They split up after they had their trays – Oscar to Max's table, and Rose to her secluded one in the corner. The boys would come over once they had finished and search her bag for the book she would have conveniently placed there earlier, Oscar having told her of the fact that they were trying to get all of her books. Lessons, in which Oscar would try his hardest and use all his considerable charm to get the class off homework, and Rose sitting in the corner only speaking when spoken to. Lunch, where again Rose and Oscar would appear together, with Rose carrying his bag and looking scared, then break. This was the only part of the day that differed every day. Sometimes the gang would hang out and hope Rose would make an appearance, which she never did. Sometimes they would both stay in their room all break, making a start on the homework they had been given. Sometimes Rose would go back to the room and start homework, but Oscar or Connor would barge into the room and drag her out to where the gang was waiting. Sometimes they managed to corner her on her way back. It changed day to day.

The most physical the bullying mainly got was Connor twisting Rose's arm, except for on two dreadful occasions. On the first, Connor was sent into her and Oscar's bedroom to fetch her, and when he pulled her outside he then pushed her onto the floor in the middle of the group. This gave Max the idea of aiming a kick at her, and soon the whole gang were joining in. To Oscar's dismay, he realised that to avoid being suspicious he had to join in, and was one of the first after Max and Connor to start the kicking. Rose didn't go to afternoon lessons that day.

The second occasion was worse. It had been a similar scenario, but each boy beat her up in turn. That meant that Oscar could not avoid kicking her softly or anything that might save her pain. It had broken his heart to see little Rosie curled up in a ball on the floor because of what he had done. Of course, she instantly forgave him later, but it was a burden on Oscar's heart.

After break, Rose and Oscar would return to classes. Once again, Rose would be silent in the corner and Oscar would attempt to relive the homework levels the class got. This recurring feat made him very popular, with the whole class clamouring to be his friend. Of course, because he was one of the elite in Max's gang, Oscar couldn't befriend all the class, but he kept on good terms with them until soon all the girls began to have crushes on him and all the boys looked up to him as leader of the class, second to Max but more liked than him.

Once lessons were over, Oscar would walk over to Rose's desk and dump his bag on it, before walking off with the gang. Rose would take it and her own bag to her and Oscar's room, and begin doing her own homework. Oscar would swagger in with one of the gang – usually Connor, Mitchell or Douglas – who would dump Max's homework on her desk. By this time Rose had usually finished her homework and could immediately start Max's. Oscar and his friend would chat, throw insults at her, discuss various things, or do anything else that came to mind, before Oscar would throw them out at nine. Then he would do the remainder of his homework that Rose hadn't already done, while she got changed and ready for bed. At nine thirty they would both be ready for bed, and they would sit on Oscar's bed and send a report to Frank on how everything was going. Then they would talk about MI High, memories of missions, and friends and so on until ten, when Rose would climb into her bunk before Oscar shut down the lights.

One of the main benefits of such a long and deep cover mission was that Oscar and Rose began to become greater and greater friends. Of course, they had already trusted each other and been good friends and fantastic teammates, but their relationship was daily becoming deeper and deeper. On several occasions before Oscar shut the light switch he had a feeling that Rose was on the brink of revealing what her great secret was, why her mental state had been so bad. But she had always pulled back from telling him at the last moment, leaving Oscar puzzled and wondering what such a big secret could be. On these occasions, Oscar usually stayed awake longer than Rose, and once she was asleep checked her mental state. Rather than the deterioration he had feared, which might have led to Rose being drawn off the mission, the reading was steadily improving. Now her mental state was around 80%, which Frank declared was the level at which there was no more danger as long as it didn't dive again. Oscar could not puzzle out why Rose was improving so rapidly when to all intents and purposes she should be getting worse – the bullying she daily endured was not a light matter.

Still the only evidence the pair had of SKUL activity was the continued plumbing of Rose's brain by Miss Franklin and the other teachers. Now Rose had a weekend session with the young teacher as well, which, she informed Oscar, mainly consisting of Miss Franklin asking her harder and harder questions, trying to see the limits of Rose's knowledge. These remained firmly over the horizon according to Rose, claiming disbelievingly "The furthest we've got so far is me confirming that I can do calculus in my head, memorize 90 digit formulae and know every detail about every important scientist who ever lived. I think she looks at an encyclopaedia before each session."

One lunch, when they were both doing homework, Oscar brought a new subject into conversation. "Rosie, you realise that Carrie will be turning up here in only few days now?"

"Course I do Oscar. I haven't been thinking of much else for a few days."

"Am I such bad company?," he joked, looking amused as Rose embarrassedly tried to take back what she had said. "But that's besides the point. You do realise that she's going to turn up and see me behaving like a horrible bully who's forcing you to carry his bag and do his homework? We aren't going to be sharing a room with her, so we won't be able to explain – either she's going to have to figure it out herself or we need to tell her before she arrives."

"I think we should let her know," Rose said, "or she might freak and use some of her kung fu against you!"

"Well that's settled then. Shall I do the talking?"

'Alright," said Rose, chucking him the communicator. "there you go."

"Thanks, Rosie. Here goes…Hi Frank, yeah I know we don't normally call at this time, but I need to talk to Carrie. Could you call her down to HQ please?"

"Of course Oscar, just give me a second… there, she should be down in about 2 minutes."

"Thanks…I'll wait." At this point Oscar heard the lift doors sliding open and a certain exuberant young agent bursting into the room. "Wow, hi Carrie, that was fast responding!"

"Hey Oscar! Thanks, how's it all going? Why did you need to speak to me, because I'm guessing that's why I was called and not Daisy and Blane?"

" Rosie and I just need to warn you about something so you don't flip out at me when you arrive in two days."

"Alright, that sounds ominous. Shoot."

"OK, so you remember Frank said that we need to cover as many friendship groups as possible?"

"Yes…"

"Well, when I got here Rose was sticking to her cover like glue and getting bullied by this group of jerks because of it. " Ignoring some remarks from Carrie about she would 'paste them for hurting Rosie', he continued "Seriously, when we were out of our room it was like she was a different person. But the thing is, the obvious choice of friendship group to cover was Max's gang…the bullies."

"I can see where this is going. And…"

"Whenever we are out of our room, and sometimes when we are in it, I have to act like I hate Rose and bully her." Oscar said very fast.

"What? And she's fine with that? I don't believe it… let me talk to her," she demanded.

" Sure, here she is." Chuckling as he passed over the bookmark, he said "She doesn't believe you're OK with this."

"Hey Carrie," Rose calmly said into the communicator. "Yes, I'm fine with it…of course I'd say if I wasn't… OK, calm down, seriously it's nothing fancy here, Daisy is going to have a fit when she sees the showers…no, no gym. Sorry. OK ,see you in two days!" She then rang off, looking at Oscar with an amused expression. "Will she ever calm down?"

"Doubt it," he chuckled, picking up his bag and handing it apologetically to her. "Well, it's off to lessons with us."

"You're the boss," she said, slinging her shoulder bag on and Oscar's rucksack on her back.

Two days later, a black car with tinted windows drew up in front of the orphanage. First Frank got out of the passenger seat, before the back door opened and Carrie got out. She was dressed in a nice, pretty red dress that came to her knees, and which even Daisy had declared 'Good enough'. Her cover was a lot more well-off than Oscar and Rose's had been – Carrie was the only daughter of a middle class politician who had recently died. Due to the amount of money left to her in the will, Carrie would technically have been able to go to a much nicer orphanage, but the money had to stay in her bank account until she was 18 and officially an adult. In the meantime, she would be given monthly pocket money, something most of the orphans could only dream of, and a designer wardrobe. Acting her role as Miss Carissa Selby, Carrie waited for her bags to be unpacked before allowing herself to be led by Miss Moscow into the main building.

Here, Carrie spoke politely with Miss Moscow about the orphanage, a well-brought-up middle class girl to the tee. She was shown to her room after a tour of all the buildings, which was inconveniently quite far away from Oscar and Rose's. But since they didn't technically know each other, she couldn't complain. Instead she thanked Miss Moscow and Lennie-disguised-as-a-taxi-driver for bringing up her bags, before beginning to unpack.

The room had evidently been made as nice as possible for her. The desks were relatively unscathed by the orphanage's standards, and all the drawers in the chest of drawers stayed shut properly. By this time it was time for dinner, and Carrie waited patiently in her room for someone to come and show her the way like Miss Moscow had promised they would. Sure enough, there was soon a knock at the door, which subsequently opened to reveal Oscar standing in the doorway with three other boys behind him. Keeping up her cover of not knowing him, Carrie extended her hand and introduced herself. "Hello, Miss Carissa Selby."

"Umm, no, my name's Oscar Wilde," he said, "Miss asked me to take you down to the dinner hall."

"Of course, I'm sorry. I meant that my name was Carissa, not yours – thank you for coming to get me. Are you going to introduce your friends?"

"Yeah – this is Mitchell, Douglas and Frank. Shall we go, then?" Smiling, Carrie said

"Lead the way! And please don't call me Carissa – I much prefer Carrie."

"Carrie it is," he grinned back, turning on his charm, "although Carissa is also a very pretty name."

"Thanks," Carrie blushed.

"Well, here's the dining hall. Trays over there, food there, and cutlery next to that. Do you want to sit with us today?"

"I'd love to," Carrie replied, walking over to the tray stack.

Once they had all sat down. Oscar introduced Carrie to the gang. "Carrie, this is Max, Louis, Tom, Josh, and then you already know me, Frank, Douglas, and Mitchell. Gang, this is Miss Carissa Selby, who just moved into this dump today."

The gang all looked at Carrie for a moment, and then at Max, who was evidently the leader. "Hey Carissa – Carrie. What brings you here?"

"Well, my father died quite recently and they have only recently finished sorting out his will. Oh please, don't feel sorry," for they had all made noises of sympathy when she told them about his death, "I really hardly ever saw him at all. But he was my only relative, so they had to find somewhere else to put me. Here was the obvious option, and I have to say I don't mind a bit. Hopefully," she said, looking at them all from under her eyelashes, "here I'll make some friends." She grinned quietly to herself. It was in her mission briefing that Miss Carissa Selby could be something of a flirt, and she couldn't wait for Daisy to turn up. They were going to be quite the pair.

Looking around the room as she ate her dinner, Carrie made note of potential friendship groups she would try to join. Being on good terms with the gang was good, but Oscar already had them covered – she should try and find someone else. Noticing a girl about her own age with her hair pulled into tight ponytail, Carrie's years of spy training began to pay off. She could tell that this girl had been trained to some degree in the martial arts. Definitely a good person to make friends with. "Who's that?" she asked Max, giving him the respect he deserved as gang leader as she pointed to the girl with the ponytail.

"Oh, that's Miranda. She's alright, up for a bit of fun sometimes. Incredible at karate – she was a black belt before she came here." Noting the useful information, Carrie picked up in a stress on the words 'a bit of fun'.

"Max, what do you call 'a bit of fun'? she asked innocently, although she already knew the answer. Sure enough, he pointed to a small table in the corner, where one younger girl was eating alone, her hair hiding her face. It looked as though she was reading a book at the same time as eating. "Look over there, Carrie. See that little girl in the corner? That's Rose Patel. She's hilarious. Always reading, however much I tell her that it will wear her brain down. In fact – Oscar, mate, is she reading now?" Oscar stood up and faced Rose, before sitting back down and nodding at Max.

"Sure is. First time she's done it twice in one day."

"Well we have to do something about that, don't we! Oscar and Connor, go get her book off her. Lets see what freaky thing she's reading this time." Turning back to Carrie, who was sitting two seats away from him, he said "Honestly, it's like she's got a library hidden away in that room of hers. However many books we take off her, she's always got another somewhere." Smiling prettily at Max, Carrie then turned to watch Oscar and Connor weaving their way towards Rose. Once they reached her table, Oscar tapped her shoulder, before holding out his hand for the book. Rose shook her head defiantly, holding it into her chest. Oscar looked at her exasperatedly, before gesturing to Connor, who then reached to her chest and grabbed one of her arms, firmly twisting it behind her back. Her head pulled back, and she had evidently cried out in pain. Connor didn't release her, twisting harder and harder until her head dropped forwards and she held the book out to Oscar. Taking it, he then directed a few words at Connor, who dropped her arm and searched the bag sitting at her feet. Pulling out another book, he waved it in her face, before handing it over to Oscar. Mission accomplished, they left Rose at her lonely table and wove back towards their table. Once they sat down, Oscar slid the books to Max. "Some science fiction novel and 'Marie Curie: The Biography'. Oy! Anyone ever heard of some girl called Marie Curie?" he shouted at the gang, who all stopped their conversations to reply in the negative.

"Must be useless then," snorted Max, stuffing the books into his bag before kicking it under the table. Oscar caught Carrie's eye, looking at her with a meaningful stare. 'This is what I was talking about'. Breathing deeply, she gave an almost imperceptible nod. 'Yes, that's ok. I can deal with that'. Looking relieved, Oscar rejoined the conversation.


	7. Chapter 7

_**I don't own MI High!**_

Carrie soon made friends with Miranda, the karate girl. In fact, they got on like a house on fire once they discovered their shared interest in martial arts. Within a week, they were pretty much inseparable. Every day after lessons, they would run and change into trousers and tops, before racing each other out to behind the school building, where there was a small patch of grass. Here they practised karate and other martial arts until dinner. Whenever anyone asked Carrie where she had learnt karate, she replied that "I had to do something when Daddy was away. Nanny was no fun, so I taught myself to fight." This normally impressed people enough to ask for a demonstration, and pretty soon Carrie was known throughout the school as someone you did not want to argue with. She continued to hang out with Max's group, where they all worshipped her, but was by no means a permanent member – she spent more time with Miranda than anyone else.

Not being able to have any contact with her teammates annoyed Carrie to the point of distraction. The only way she could talk to Rose and Oscar was through HQ, and that took ages. Carrie was at first shocked by the level Oscar's bullying of Rose went to, but relaxed a bit after Rose assured her through Frank and HQ that it was all a play and that she didn't mind a bit. The days at the orphanage flew past, and Carrie didn't see any evidence of SKUL activity. The first suspicious sign came from Miss Franklin, who was walking past the grass patch one day when she and Miranda were practising. As she walked past, she did a double-take, before watching them together for a while. Carrie took this opportunity to show off her better moves – Rose had already raised suspicions about the young teacher and if she was a SKUL agent she needed to think Carrie was a worthy recruit. Miss Franklin looked incredibly impressed at Carrie's moves, nodding at the two girls before moving off again. Carrie contacted Frank about her interest later that night, and he then told Oscar and Rose to keep an eye out too – that was two mildly suspicious things she had done. SKUL were incredibly skilled, they weren't going to leave massive signs behind. After this incident, Miss Franklin often happened to be passing when Carrie and Miranda were practising.

The days until Blane arrived were rapidly disappearing. The three agents were being very careful to follow Frank's instructions – do not go looking for the SKUL agents. If they were there, they needed to seek out the agents, not the other way around. But as Blane's arrival came closer, Carrie and Oscar desperately wanted something to show Blane. After all, although the two teams were now technically working together, Carrie reported a degree of rivalry between the new and old MI High teams.

The day before Blane's arrival, Oscar and Rose called Frank and asked for Blane, before telling him the same story they had told Carrie. It took Blane a while longer to accept the fact that Rose was being bullied and he couldn't do anything about it, but eventually he conceded.

The next day, in the middle of the afternoon, Blane was driven up to the orphanage in the same car that Rose and Oscar had arrived in – one belonging to the local council. His cover story was almost identical to Oscar's – he had lived in an orphanage since he was born, and had never known real family, but he was being moved due to a massive influx of new kids. His old orphanage didn't have space, so he was shifted to this one. Blane Faraday was a tall boy who had some of Oscar's charm, but became well-known more from his power. He was a karate expert and was not afraid to use his skills. Blane was meant to make friends only slowly, except with his roommate Carrie, with whom he would form a fast bond.

Miss Moscow came out and introduced herself, looking Blane up and down rather critically as though trying to see his faults. When he had introduced himself, she gave the customary tour before leading him up to his room. He acted surprised as he went in – it was nicer than the other rooms that he had passed on his way up. "Yes, yes, I know. Your roommate is Miss Carissa Selby, who's father left the orphanage quite a bit of money when he died. It was the least we could do to see that his daughter had a nice room. A charming young lady. But this is nothing compared with the preparations we're having to make – the child of a late Count and Countess is coming here – a real Lady! It's most unorthodox, normally she would move in with relatives, but the will was clear that it was here or nowhere, so she's arriving in two weeks…I'll leave you to get settled in." Leaving Blane in the room, she bustled out again. Blane chuckled inwardly at the fluster Daisy's arrival would cause such a normally unflappable woman. Seeing that Carrie had already bagged the top bunk, Blane lifted his suitcase onto the lower one and began to unpack.

Half an hour later, Carrie burst into the room. "Blane!" she whispered, evidently realising that she had a follower behind her.

"Hello, I am Blane Faraday. Miss Moscow told me that this was my room?"

"Yes, I believe that's right," said Carrie, quickly resuming her slightly superior air. "She said something about it this morning. I'm Carissa Selby, but please call me Carrie." She then waved off the girl who was following her with a quick "I'll show you more tomorrow, Angela." Disappointed, the girl left. "Finally! She's been following me all day. So Blane, how's everything?"

"Fine thanks, Miss Carissa. Should I bow?"

"Oh, knock it off already, Blane. I've missed having someone to talk to. Have you seen Oscar and Rose yet?"

"No, but I got a call from them last night about Rose being fine with whatever Oscar's doing to her. Do I need to be worried?"

"Well, it might come as a shock. Seriously, try not to attack Oscar when you see them at breakfast." Shaking her head, Carrie gathered her stuff and climbed onto her bed, before instructing Blane to turn his back while she changed.

The next morning, Carrie and Blane went down to breakfast together, chatting as if they were new friends. After they had their food, they walked over to where Miranda and Carrie's admirers were sitting. Since they had started practising where people could see them, both of them had gained a lot of popularity, especially with the little girls who got pushed around by the boys. Miranda was grateful for this newly found fan club, as she had not had any proper friends before. Carrie had obviously invited Blane to sit with them, and Miranda and he struck it off pretty quickly, getting into conversation about their lives and the orphanage, as well as martial arts. Carrie kept an eye on the door as she had promised to do, as Blane had wanted to see Rose and Oscar as soon as they entered the room. Suddenly, in the middle of a discussion with Miranda about the benefits of practising martial arts on grass instead of in a gym, Carrie nudged him in the ribs, indicating that the two agents had entered the room. Blane looked up, and started. They were deep undercover, and seemed nothing like the agents he knew. Rose was walking a pace behind Oscar, who was in the middle of a crowd of other boys. She was carrying two bags, one of which was evidently Oscar's. Her head was ducked, her hair swinging forwards to hide her face from the world. Oscar was leading the crowd of boys, his arrogant bearing clearly stating that he was the boss. The other boys obviously agreed with this, trying to impress him as he strode into the hall. Here, the group split up – Rose walked quietly over to a table already filled with chattering boys and girls and placed one of the bags by the boy who was clearly in charge. He nodded brusquely at her, and she then crept away again, heading for the food. As she was passing Oscar's group heading in the other direction, one of the boys deliberately tripped her up. Oscar laughed when she sprawled on the floor, before stepping on her hand as he waked past her. Rose picked herself up, and headed to the food counter. Perhaps it was due to the amount of missions he had served with Rose, but he could see from the other side of the room that she was in tears.

Later on during breakfast, when Blane had turned his attention back to making friends with Miranda, who clearly disapproved of Rose, Carrie nudged Blane again. This time including Miranda in the gesture, she drew their attention to Oscar and another boy, Connor according to Carrie, weaving their way across the dining room towards Rose, who was sitting quite close to Blane, Miranda and Carrie. Miranda giggled, saying "She hasn't done it again, has she? That girl will never learn." Seeing Blane's bewildered expression, she quickly explained, "Patel over there is hated by Max and Oscar's gang. They hate the fact that she is always reading, it really annoys them. So every time Max sees her with a book, he sends Oscar and someone else over to take it from her. It happens every single breakfast without fail, she always starts reading. And they always notice. Watch…" Blane turned his attention back to Rose and Oscar, and he wasn't the only one – this was clearly an anticipated daily show at the orphanage. Oscar stood in front of Rose, his body language threatening. Rose shook her head, even though he hadn't even said anything yet.

"I won't give it to you, Oscar! Why do you keep taking my books away, it won't stop me reading!"

"It will, eventually. You can't have an infinite amount of books hidden away in our room, Rose, you stash is going to be running out fast. Now just hand it over or will you insist on continuing to refuse?" All this was said in a quiet, threatening voice that sent danger messages to Blane's brain immediately. Watching Rose, he saw her again shake her head defiantly.

"Only if you force me."

"Fine, then, I will. Connor, go on." Oscar sounded truly annoyed, as though Rose was forcing him to do something he didn't want to. But then Blane gasped as the boy – Connor – went to snatch Rose's book – only he didn't. Instead, he caught hold of one of her arms, twisting it behind her back at an unnatural and painful angle. Blane could see tears trickling down her face, but she did not give in. It was only when Oscar impatiently gestured for Connor to twist harder that she let out a very soft scream of pain, releasing her hold on the book. But still Oscar didn't take it. Instead, he ordered for Connor to twist even harder, saying in a soft voice, "Now Rose, you know the rules. I'm not going to take your book – you are going to give it to me. And Connor won't let go until you do. He'll break your arm if he has to. You don't want that, do you Rose?"

"No," she gasped, her voice laden with despair and pain. "Fine, you win. Again. Here." She slid her free hand into her lap, picked up the book and handed it to Oscar, who petted her head as though she were a cat and said

"Good girl. The message will get through eventually. You can let go, Connor, and search her bag." Connor did so without question, rummaging through her stuff. He pulled out a few textbooks and exercise books, playfully tapping Rose on the head with them, before saying

"It's clear."

"Well, Rose, are we finally having an impact? That's the first time you haven't had another book stashed in your bag for weeks!"

"I hate you." She said, quietly but clearly, her voice sad and lonely. "I hate you."

"Now then Rose, I'm not that bad. Just want to protect that lovely little brain of yours. Off we go Connor." With that, the pair left Rose, whose head dropped back onto hr table.

Blane turned around to see Miranda rapidly talking already. Something about karate…wait, this was the practise they had been talking about earlier. But now he wanted to ask a question, and Miranda had been very enthusiastic about the topic so far. "Miranda…why did Connor take some of that girl's text and exercise books? She didn't even seen to mind those being taken."

"That's because they're not hers. Max and Oscar make her do their homework for them every night. They were just Max's books – I expect Oscar takes his back in their room. Poor him, can you imagine sharing a room with that cry baby? Ugh…"

"Yeah," Blane agreed, sick with himself for what he was doing. "She really did seem a bit pathetic. Now, about that karate practise after lessons…"

Blane settled in quickly, using his spy skills to make good friends with Miranda. He joined in her and Carrie's martial arts practise, gaining himself a following of younger boys clamouring for him to teach them some 'moves'. All the older boys took note as well, although they weren't as outwardly enthusiastic. He quickly made himself a reputation as not someone to be messed with when he knocked a boy out for saying that karate was a girlish sport. He got detention, but for the friends it earned him, Blane felt it definitely worth it.

Amused by the lengths the orphanage were going to in preparation for the arrival of Lady Daisy Meredith, and soon the day came when she was due to arrive.

That morning, there had been a message from the feared Miss Moscow that all the orphans were to be outside the front door in their smartest clothes after lunch break. So at lunch, all the children were in a frenzy of getting ready to greet their distinguished new classmate. Rose, Oscar and Blane were all quite scruffy even in their best clothes, due to their less well off cover stories, while Carrie spent the whole break transforming into Miss Carissa Selby, who would be the next most distinguished pupil and would be paraded as the perfect friend for the new student.


	8. Chapter 8

_Please review!  
**I don't own MI High**  
_

Daisy arrived at the orphanage in a beautiful Mercedes with tinted windows mid afternoon that day. The whole pupil body was waiting outside as she sat in the back seat, waiting for her driver – Lennie – to open the door for her. Then she stepped out onto the pavement, flicking her hair back and looking around at the assembled audience with a superior air. "Lady Meredith, if you will follow me," said Frank, acting the highly paid lawyer.

"Certainly, Frank," replied Daisy in her 'refined' voice, handing her handbag to Lennie as she walked past, her knee-length blue dress swirling around. It was one of her favourites – sea-blue, with a line of seed pearls around the bodice. Of course, the pearls were fake – so that it being stolen or damaged would not be a calamity. Not that anyone else needed to know that. To match, Daisy had a fake pearl headband holding her loose hair off her face, and blue ballerina pumps.

"Hello, I'm Miss Moscow and I'm in charge of the Penhallow Orphanage. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Meredith," gushed the formidable house matron, completely out of character. Daisy gave the light, lilting laugh of Lady Daisy Meredith, heir to a considerable fortune as soon as she was of age.

"Good afternoon, Miss Moscow, it's a pleasure to meet you too. And please, call me Daisy."

"Thank you Daisy, I hope you will be very happy here. I've asked Miss Carissa Selby to show you around – Carissa, if you will show Lady Mere…Daisy around and then take her down to dinner. Mr Kenneth, a pleasure to meet you at last. Would you like to step into my office? Children – back to lessons, please." With that, Miss Moscow turned on her heel and led Frank into the building.

As soon as they were out of earshot of everybody, Carrie and Daisy hugged hello after not seeing each other for four weeks. Then Carrie showed Daisy around, filling her in with a low voice as to what was happening.

"So Oscar and Rose's room is quite near yours, they are just around the corner … mine and Blane's is in the other residential building, which is annoying, but hey. Don't freak out when you see the level to which Oscar is bullying Rose, she promises me that its OK with her. Blane and I are showing off our martial arts skills to attract attention, you should be the friends-with-everyone person since Oscar is with the bullies and we have the fighting kids. They have made a massive fuss getting ready for Lady Daisy Meredith to turn up, you get your own room with the nicest furniture they could buy with the money Frank gave them, and you don't have to share. Not that I mind sharing with Blane, he's good fun. And you'll be glad to see him again, if what I saw before the mission was anything to go by..." at this point Daisy blushed. Finally they had officially started dating, only to be split up again soon afterwards to come on the mission. "Anyway, lessons on the bottom floor of that building, second floor strictly out of bounds as Miss Moscow and the other teacher's lair, rooms in those two buildings. That concrete square is, apparently, the playground. I do martial arts with Blane and Miranda behind that building over there. Dining hall on the bottom floor of Building 2. This is your room."

Daisy pushed open the door into what would be her room for the next year. It was clear that Carrie had been telling the truth about an effort being made. There was a new single bed in the corner, which had a nice duvet and unmarked headboard. The desk was larger than those the other rooms had, also new-looking, and instead of a chest of drawers there was a wardrobe. While it was hardly the room she had in her country estate, it would easily be the nicest children's room in the orphanage.

Aware of someone's footsteps coming down the corridor, Daisy resumed her 'Lady' air. "Thank you, Carissa – may I call you Carrie? Well, thank you, Carrie. What time is dinner?"

"We should probably head down now," replied Carrie.

"Lead the way," invited Daisy, before following Carrie out of the room, down the stairs and into the dining hall.

Now that all five agents were undercover at Penhallow, life slowed down considerably. Blane was now best friends with Miranda, and they were always talking about different fights they had been in – Blane's mostly invented, as he couldn't tell her about the times he had fought (and defeated) fully grown SKUL agents, Miranda's with the kids from the orphanage and surrounding neighbourhood. While Carrie kept on good terms with Miranda, and still had a dedicated following, she became closer and closer to Daisy, and the pair of them became known as the 'The Girls', who could ask anything off anyone and get it, even the teachers. They used this power quite frequently, and the only teacher who seemed to notice that she was being tricked in this way was Miss Franklin, who always looked amused when one of them tried to get something out of her. In the meantime, Oscar and Rose were still becoming better and better friends when they weren't acting. Oscar felt Rose placing more and more trust in him almost daily, and they both loved their long chats at the end of the day, when they both dropped their covers somewhat to reveal their usual personalities.

However, Oscar was still sure that Rose was holding back her biggest, most painful secret, which he was now sure existed. He was often getting the feeling that she was about to tell him, but she still always drew back at the last moment. He was also slightly bewildered at the change between the Rose he had always known, who flinched away from physical contact and was incredibly closed off, and the Rose he saw in their room – a Rose who frequently snuggled into him while they were talking, hid her face in his chest when she had a particularly painful bruise from the gang, and seemed much more open than the old Rose.

One day, about three weeks after Daisy had arrived at Penhallow, there was finally some action. The all the students were allowed to visit the town for a day, provided that they stayed in twos and were back by four. This caused a great stir in the orphanage – it happened every year, once a year, and was eagerly anticipated. Daisy and Carrie were about the only ones who would actually be able to afford anything, but the novelty of leaving the grounds was great for the kids, who were normally pretty much locked up. When the day came, Oscar was talking to Rose about who she was going to walk with. He was obviously going with Max, and Carrie and Daisy were going together – even if they hadn't been, they weren't meant to think of Rose past 'that weird little girl over there'. Blane was going with Miranda. Looking into the orphanage, Rose realised that she had been so true to her cover there was no-one who would be willing to go with her. Disappointed, she told Oscar that she was probably going to be staying behind. "Aw Rosie, that's too bad. It would have been a perfect time to contact Frank." But he couldn't do anything about it.

During breakfast that day, as usual Oscar and Connor came over to get her book. Sighing, Rose realised that it was her last one. Now was the time to get them all back and start again. Rose obviously did not enjoy the daily arm-twisting, but she would not give her books over freely, and Oscar could not back down from taking them from her without seeming suspicious. He still frequently berated himself for not being the first into Penhallow's and allowing Rose to be left on her own for two weeks, causing these seeds to be sown, but had accepted that he couldn't change it now. However much Rose told him that she really didn't mind, that it was good for the mission, he couldn't shake the feeling that Rose should be back in HQ. The only other option – Rose not bringing a book down – would make Max believe that she had given in, and Rose was dead set against this option. Whatever she was, she was not a quitter.

But since everyone was going out that day, it was a good time to steal back her books.

Rose didn't need to plan very carefully – after all the missions she had been on, stealing her own books from an untrained, idiotic teenage boy would be easy. So she was not worried as she went the other way to the crowd after breakfast, heading into the building instead of towards the gates. Turning on the stairs, she threw a wistful glance after the group heading off towards the gates– Rose Patel would have been devastated if she had really existed. Max saw her looking and threw a smirk at her, before she continued up the stairs to where she knew Max's room to be.

When she arrived outside it, she was almost disappointed by the lack of laser security cameras, DNA coded doors and sensitive motion detectors. She missed the almost daily drama of MI High, and had been hoping to knock someone out with the gobstoppers at the very least. Instead, she simply pushed the door open and walked it.

Max's room was a tip. There were clothes all over the floor, papers lying around the upturned desk and it was a surprise Max and his roommate could even find their beds under the amount of junk lying on them. Holding her breath slightly to avoid the disgusting smell, Rose picked her way towards the bed. She was sure that Max would not have been able to think of a more ingenious hiding place, and sure enough, when she bent down and looked under the lower bunk she saw all her books lying there, clearly kicked out of the way. Pulling the first one out, she flipped open the front cover and saw that Max had written 'CONFISCATED' in a red pen on the title page. Angry at the graffiti on her books, Rose reached under the bed, grabbing as many as she could and fitting them all into her bag. She then took another armful, and another, until all of her books were safely stored in her bag. Glad that the job was done, Rose stood up and started to make her way back to her own room, where she was going to unpack all the books back into her two drawers – it was the best place to keep them as her desk was full of work anyway. However, on her way back, Miss Moscow saw Rose. "Now, Rose," she boomed in her fearsome voice, "why on earth are you still here when everyone else is enjoying the day in the town?"

"Sorry, Mrs Moscow. But you were very clear on the fact that everybody had to go in pairs or a bigger group, and everyone had already formed their groups, so there was nobody for me to go with." Rose apologised in her quiet-and-polite-little-girl voice.

"Don't be so silly. Just because all your classmates are older than you does not mean they will not want to be in a group with you," said Mrs Moscow, clearly believing that she had worked out the problem. "Now, this is what we'll do. You will go and unload all those heavy books from your bag – honestly, I never did know such a girl for reading – and meet me by the front gate. I will then walk you down to the village, where you can join up with a group of your classmates. Can't have you missing such a lovely day out, now, can we?" Seeing that the house mistress would have no argument, Rose nodded, before speeding off to her room. Here, she stacked all her books underneath her desk, except one, which she kept in her bag for when she was waiting in the village. Turning around, she then let her hair out of its ponytail, before racing down to the front gate in an effort not to keep Miss waiting. Miss Moscow smiled and nodded approvingly when she ran up, before turning on her heel and walking out of the gate.

Once they were down in the village, Rose stood shyly by Miss Moscow, answering the questions she was asked. Yes, she was enjoying Penhallow. Yes, she had made some good friends (keeping her fingers crossed). No, she didn't miss her parents too much, although of course it was hard. Et cetera, et cetera. Miss Moscow kept a sharp lookout for anybody in Rose's year that she might be able to pass the small girl off to. In her head, Rose was chanting 'One of the team, one of the team, one of the team,' desperately hoping that she would not be walking around with total strangers. At least if it was Daisy, Carrie or Blane, she did know them, even if she had to pretend she didn't.

But as the first group of orphanage children turned the corner, the phrase 'Be careful what you wish for' sprang instantly into her mind.

Max and Oscar were leading a large group of boys and girls, all fooling around, delighted at the day of freedom. Not seeing Rose's panicked face, Miss Moscow said "Perfect,", before calling to Oscar, who she viewed as quite possibly the nicest and most charming boy at Penhallow's, and saying, "Now, Oscar, little Rose was left behind because she didn't have anyone to go with. I said that it was silly of her to be scared of her classmates just because they were older than her. You and Max wont mind her coming with you, will you? I'm sure she won't be any trouble?"

Grinning nastily at Rose, Oscar then gave his signature charming smile to Miss Moscow. "Of course, Miss. We'll keep her safe, don't worry about it. Come on then, Rosie, off we go." Smiling at her success, Miss Moscow briskly walked back up the road, heading back to the orphanage buildings. Oscar grabbed Rose's hand, squeezing it slightly in apology as he dragged her back over to the crowd of 16 year olds.


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter 9 - please review!  
**I don't own MI High**_

Oscar grabbed Rose's hand once Miss Moscow's back was turned, squeezing it slightly in apology as he pulled her over to where Max was standing. "Bad luck, people. We've been landed with looking after shrimp because nobody wanted to come down with her." Groaning, the gang all looked disgustedly at Rose, who was two heads smaller than most of them.

"Do we have to, Oscar? I mean, we can't just dump her somewhere?" was the general chorus.

"Sorry folks, but no. It's important I stay in Miss's good books if you lot want to keep getting off homework, and she didn't really leave me a chance to say no." Max looked down at Rose, who was looking at the pavement, scared and embarrassed.

"Well then, I expect we'll just have to cope," he said nastily, tapping Rose on the head as though she was a pet. "Come along then, don't keep us waiting." At this, he turned and strode quickly along the street, the gang moving as one and Rose stumbling along behind.  
Oscar did his best to divert the attention of the group from Rose, constantly bringing the attention back to himself when the gang began to seem bored. Around an hour after Rose arrived in the village, however, he couldn't avoid it any longer without explicitly telling everyone to lay off her. Obviously, for the safety of the mission, he couldn't do that.

It started off with various people just throwing insults at Rose. Keeping her eyes on the pavement, she kept silent, seemingly ignoring everyone. But then Max asked her a direct question. "Shrimp, why're you not up at the orphanage? Oscar here said that you were planning on staying there cos nobody wanted the poor ickle shrimp as their partner."

Very quietly, so that everybody had to strain to hear her, Rose replied without moving her gaze from the ground "I was, but Miss found me and told me to come down with her so that she could find me a group to go with. She didn't want me to miss the day out."

"How nice of Miss," said Max in a heavily sarcastic voice. "Miss saw a little lonely girl without friends and brought her down to shove her on a group of people who hate her. That was a good plan, wasn't it?" Rose didn't answer, ignoring the chuckling that spread like ripples through the gang, as she desperately tried to think of a way to avoid her impeding doom. "So what were you doing when Miss found you, shrimp? Reading as usual?"

"No," Rose replied in a whisper, "I was walking to Oscar and my room."

"Really? But it couldn't have taken you that long to walk there. I saw you myself coming out of the dining hall a little ahead of me. So what did you do before walking back to your room?"

"I…I was…I wanted to…" Rose desperately tried to invent an excuse.

"Oh dear, no answer? I do hope it wasn't anything you shouldn't have been doing, shrimp."

"No, I was just…I wanted to see if Miss Franklin was in her room," improvised Rose quickly.

"Were you indeed? Then you still haven't learnt your way around, shrimp, because Miss Franklin's room is on top of the dining hall and you went into the Dorm building." When Rose was fishing for another excuse, he sniggered and said "Gang, I think shrimp here is lying to us."

"No! I'm not, I promise, I just…forgot that all the teachers were above the dining hall."

"Even after you had all those weekend sessions with Miss Franklin? Shrimp, you're not fooling anyone with your lies. Truthful answer or the gang beats you up." With a deep breath, Rose seemed to come to a difficult decision. Slipping her hand into her shoulder bag, she pulled out the book she had left in it and silently handed it over to Max. "What's this? Oscar, mate, you must have made a mistake, she's not out of books," Oscar was confused – Rose had told him that she only had one book left, and he had taken that one at breakfast…but then Max flipped the front cover of the book open, to see that the title page bore a word in his own writing – 'CONFISCATED'. Drawing breath, Oscar looked over at Rose, who was standing silently, shaking slightly with fear as she prepared herself for the beating Oscar knew would be inevitable. "Oh, shrimp," sighed Max happily, a look of anticipation on his face, "surely you haven't stolen all those books back from my room?" When Rose nodded miserably, Oscar steeled himself for the upcoming beating and the role he had to play as Max's second in command.

"Well, we can't have that! That means you must have been in my room, which is private, and disrespected me by stealing what I had confiscated! Connor..." he gestured, and Connor immediately walked forwards and snatched Rose's bag, dumping it on the ground before grabbing her arm and twisting it behind her back. Rose was so used to this by now that she only let a single tear escape. Oscar could see her using the technique they had been taught in training – breathing through the pain to try and lessen it. This tactic could only go so far, however, and when Mitchell walked forwards and grabbed an handful of her hair, pulling it painfully away from her head, Oscar could clearly see her breathing quicken and her head try to follow Mitchell's hand, exposing the top of her neck. The small agent was dwarfed by the two towering boys, and even though she could easily have taken them in a fight – Rose could probably take all of the gang on in a fight and escape with only a bruise – she was repressing this instinct very effectively.

Max sauntered forwards, until he was standing right in front of Rose, looking down into her upturned face. Grinning nastily at the tears now running down her face, Max took one step back, before drawing back his fist and driving it into her stomach. Rose screamed, a short, quiet scream that tore at Oscar's heart. Her legs crumpled underneath her as she tried to curl into a ball, but Connor and Mitchell held her upright. Oscar saw that she was trying to repress the tears, that she was trying to be brave, but being held up by your hair and putting all your weight on a twisted arm was sure to be painful.

Rose's free arm came forwards to wrap around her stomach, trying to protect it from further harm. She scrambled to find her feet, to try and take some of the weight off her arm, but Max was quick to notice this and kicked her legs out from underneath her. At the same time, he shouted to Connor and Mitchell to 'Drop her!', which they did, causing her to fall heavily onto the ground and immediately curl up into a ball, gasping in pain. Max kicked her swiftly on her back, in a blow that was meant to be more degrading than actually painful, but it elicited a scream of pain, the loudest Oscar had heard her scream before. Frowning slightly, because that shouldn't have been that painful, Oscar realised that the other boys were looking at him expectantly. Realising that he would have to figure it out later, he walked slowly forwards, Max dropping back at the same time. Turning and smirking at the gang, Oscar then merely stood above Rose for a few seconds. Then he snapped "Oh, get up, shrimp." Rose immediately tried to stop the gasps of pain even harder, tightening the ball she was in even further. "Rose Patel, if you don't get up in the next five seconds I will make you. One…" Oscar started counting, at the same time as two of the boys moved to stand behind Rose, prepared to force her to stand up. Once Oscar reached five, each of them reached down and roughly grabbed her arms, pulling her to her feet. Oscar thought that the best way he could avoid hurting Rose physically was to verbally torment her, but then he was left with the problem of how to do it without actually hurting her seriously. "So, shrimp," he began, slowly moving forwards until he was invading her personal space, forcing her to crane her neck slightly to keep his face in view, "tell me again why you're here." Looking very confused, Rose mumbled in between gasps

"Parents…died…nowhere…else…to…go"

"Despite your freaky brains, you really are an idiot sometimes. I meant why are you right here, in a bunch of 16 year olds who couldn't want you here less, but also happen to be your classmates?"

"You…mean…why…am I…in your…class?" Rose asked, looking confused.

"Yes, precisely. Why is a tiny 14 year old clever enough to join a class of 16 year olds?"

"Um…because…I…read…a lot?" she said, a clear question in her voice as she tried to figure out what he meant.

"Quite right. But to move that far up, you would have had to read an awful lot. Have you never had a day where you think 'today I'm actually going to have fun, maybe make friends, and not read'? Come to think of it, have you ever had any friends?" That was safe enough, thought Oscar – she must know that all the agents are her best friends and will stick by her no matter what.

"Yes," Rose said, her gasps slowing as she started to manage to get her breath back. "I had friends…at my old school."

"'Course you did. What were they called?"

"Um…" stuttered Rose, clearly trying to invent some names so she could avoid saying the names of all the agents, "there was…Frank, and Oscar, and Petal, and Clarissa.." Oscar sighed slightly at the obvious associations between the names of the friends she said she had had and the agents' names. Daisy became Petal, Carrie – short for Carissa – became Clarissa. And she hadn't even bothered to change Oscar and Frank's names.

"Are you sure these were real friends, not ones you made up in your head? Because you seem to have trouble finding their names…" snarled Oscar, grabbing Rose's chin and forcing her to look up at him. He ghosted a wink to her, and saw a tiny smile in return. Then she gave a very realistic small sob, which delighted Max.

"She made them up! Shrimp has never had any real friends!" he whooped, and the gang followed his lead by renewing their laughs and jeers.

"What about your parents? Did you ever actually meet them? Or were you holed up in your room, reading the whole time?" continued Oscar. To his dismay, however, at this Rose let out what seemed to be a genuine sob, new tears running down her face as she let her head drop to look at the floor. At this point, Max tapped Oscar on the shoulder, and Oscar immediately stood to the side. While Rose's head was dropped, Max drew back his hand and slapped her hard across the face, causing her head to snap round due to the force. Her hand came up to her cheek, and she looked shocked at the sudden reversal to physical violence.

Then the whole gang descended on her. Rose quickly curled into a ball, and every inch of her skin was kicked and punched by the 16 year olds. Soon, she stopped screaming, and just lay there, trying to minimise the amount of skin they could reach. Oscar looked down at his smallest teammate as every open piece of skin was kicked black and blue, and felt the terrible guilt worsen. Then he heard a sickening crack and a dreadful scream, and the group stilled for a moment. One boy – Charlie – had kicked her shin so hard that he broke it.

A dead silence stilled the gang.

After a few seconds, Max laughed a dreadful, evil laugh. Oscar felt sick when he heard it. Bullying was one thing. Laughing after you had broken someone's bone was quite another.

Max darted forwards towards Rose's hurt leg. She was lying very still, the only movement a slight heaving movement in her chest as she lay there crying silently. Once he was standing by it, Max 'accidentally' flicked her shin with his toe. Rose screamed again. Max laughed, and slowly the gang joined in with him, until they were all laughing at Rose's broken leg. Max continued to flick it, eliciting scream after scream from Rose. Then suddenly, her body relaxed and the screams stopped.

Oscar slowly stooped and pulled back one of her eyelids and checked her pulse.

"Mates, she's unconscious" he announced to the watching group.

"Well that's no fun, is it?" complained Max. "Ah well. Let's move, people." With that, he led the way down the street, leaving Rose lying in a ball, unconscious on the pavement. Oscar didn't know what to do. The gang would throw him out if he stayed with her, but Rose needed him. Resolving to come back as soon as he could, he sent one last longing glance towards her and ran to catch up with the gang.

He didn't see the black van driving quickly up the street.  
He didn't see the figures dressed in black that jumped out.  
He didn't see them grab Rose and her bag.  
He didn't see them load them both into the back of the van.  
He didn't see the van drive off again.


	10. Chapter 10

_Please review!  
**I don't own MI High**_

It was nearly half an hour later before Oscar found an excuse to leave the gang. Finally, he managed it, and immediately sprinted back to the place he expected Rose to be lying. Then he saw that she wasn't there any more. Trying to convince himself that everything was going to be fine, that a shopkeeper or kid had seen Rose and called Miss Moscow, he nevertheless raked the area with his eyes for clues that she had been kidnapped. He was an MI9 teenage spy, after all. Training kicked in - panicking would be counterproductive.

Then he saw a piece of paper lying on the road. Turning it over quickly, Oscar saw that it was covered in notes on the English class they had had the previous day – in Rose's handwriting.

His mind working furiously, Oscar realised that standing here wasn't going to do anything. Quickly searching the rest of the area for clues, he didn't find anything else – and the lone sheet of paper didn't prove anything. It could easily have fallen out of her folder when Connor chucked her bag on the floor. The only thing he could do was return to the orphanage and try to contact Frank.

Oscar's mind was working in overdrive as he sprinted back up the street. He burst into Penhallows, leaving the gate clanging open behind him, before taking the stairs two at a time as he ran up to his and Rose's room. As he burst through the door, Oscar half expected to see a small figure crunched up on the bunk bed, as she had been the first time he went into the small room.

But there was nobody there.

All of her books were stacked neatly under her desk, her clothes were all still in the wardrobe, everything was exactly the same as it had been when he left that morning.

Trying to calm himself down, Oscar reasoned with himself that she was probably with Miss Moscow, as after all she did have a broken leg. Spinning around, he left the room and sprinted to Miss Moscow's – a daring feat by anyone's standards. The lady answered her door after he knocked. "Oscar! Is everything all right?" she asked, and Oscar thanked his lucky stars that his cover was so likeable – if Max had come up here, he would have been in deep trouble.

"Miss, I was wondering if you knew where Rose was? Rose Patel? We lost her in town – she just disappeared – and we were wondering if you had seen her?"

"As a matter of fact, Oscar, I haven't, but I do know where she is. Miss Franklin found her in town, she had fallen over quite badly and Miss Franklin took her to the hospital. I'm glad Rose has such a conscientious roommate – many wouldn't have given her not being there a second thought, she is such a quiet scrap. Hard to get a word out of her, seems to have built a wall around herself so that nobody can get in, if you see what I mean. Anyway, if you want more information, I'm afraid you'd have to find Miss Franklin – all I know is that she is in hospital."

"Thank you very much, Miss. I just wanted to know that someone had found her alright."

"You are very sweet, Oscar. I'm sure Rose will be fine."

"Yes Miss. Thank you again." Oscar walked down the corridor, looking for Miss Franklin's room. He was wondering if it was a coincidence – their only suspect of SKUL activity being the only person who seemed to know anything about Rose's disapearance. Reaching the door with a plaque reading "Miss H. Franklin – Science", Oscar knocked and waited for a reply.

When Miss Franklin opened the door, she looked shocked to see Oscar there. In truth, he had never seemed very engaged in her lessons, and students rarely visited the teacher's floor anyway. "Well, hello, Oscar. How can I help you?" she asked, obviously slightly flustered at his unexpected appearance.

"Miss Franklin, I was wondering how Rose was? Miss Moscow said that you had to take her to hospital because she fell in the village. You see she was meant to be with me, but she disappeared – you know how quiet she is – and suddenly I realised she wasn't there. I feel really bad, like it's my fault she had to go to hospital – I was meant to be looking after her." Miss Franklin looked at him as if assessing him, taking a while to think before answering .

"Yes, Oscar, Rose is perfectly alright. She will have to spend around a week in hospital, though, as her leg is broken and needs looking at – it seems quite a nasty break, the bone has slipped completely out of place. The doctors say that breaking a leg like that merely by tripping is very hard to do – she was unconscious for a good half and hour and has a plethora of other bruises and cuts all over her arms and legs – her stomach and back too, I believe, although she won't let us look at them. But she does swear that she only fell…" looking amused at Oscar's relived expression, as though she knew exactly how Rose's leg had broken, Miss Franklin began to shut the door, but Oscar interrupted quickly,

"Miss, would it be alright if I went to see her?" At this, Miss Franklin's amused expression completely shut down, and she snapped

"No, Oscar, I'm afraid you can't." Not offering any more explanation than that, she shut the door, leaving Oscar standing outside looking confused and feeling suspicious. All hospitals have visiting hours. Why couldn't he go to see Rose?

At dinner that day, Oscar joined Max's table as usual. All the gang were laughing at how they had managed to dump Rose in the street with a broken leg, wondering how long it had been until someone found her and took her to the hospital and how long she had stayed unconscious. Oscar only joined in half-heartedly, worried sick about little Rosie.

After everyone had eaten, Miss Moscow stood up and asked everybody to stay in their seats as she had an announcement. Once all the whispers had died down, her booming voice filled the room : "As some of you might have noticed, Rose Patel," here Max nudged Oscar and grinned, "is not here tonight. This is because she is currently in hospital with a badly broken leg. She should be back by the end of the week. Now, Rose promises that she broke her leg by tripping over the kerbstone, but the hospital authorities and I do not feel that this story is very plausible, given the severity of the break. If anybody knows anything about how Rose really had this accident, I would advise them to step forwards now, or to visit my office before she gets back. That is all." Miss Moscow sat down again, and the hall erupted with talk. Everybody knew what had really happened to Rose. You would have been stupid not to realise what had happened, what with the daily book stealing and bullying by Max and Oscar's gang. But no one stepped forwards, scared that the same thing would happen to them if they said anything.

Max was busy threatening the gang as to what would happened if they told anyone what had happened, although they were all already so scared of him and Oscar that it was not strictly necessary. Oscar sat back and let him get on with it, still thinking about the possible kidnapping of Rose by SKUL. He knew that he was probably being stupid, but the remark Miss Franklin had made – that there were to be no visitors – was really annoying him. No hospitals said that visitors were forbidden, so it must be the teachers who were keeping him from visiting her. Why would they do that, if they didn't have something to hide? Oscar was very suspicious now.

Once he was back in his room, Oscar searched frantically for the communicator bookmark Frank had given Rose, so that he could send a message to HQ about Rose being in hospital. However, he couldn't find it anywhere, and was forced to conclude that it had been in Rose's bag. Nevertheless, it was important that he spoke to Frank and Lennie, and so he tried to think up an excuse to visit either Blane and Carrie or Daisy. Deciding to pretend that the mental state hair band was Carrie's, he shoved it into his pocket and quickly made his way over to her building. Once inside, it was easy to find Carrie and Blane's room – when he passed a door covered in martial arts posters, there was little doubt as to who was there.

Seconds after he had knocked on the door, it swung open to reveal Blane, looking sullen and worried. "Yeah?" he said, playing uninterested at why the orphanage golden boy Oscar Wilde was standing outside his room. Oscar pulled the band out of his pocket.

"I think this is Carrie's, is she in there?"

"Yeah, you can come in if you want," said Blane, retreating into his room. Oscar followed him in.

Carrie was sitting on the top bunk, her legs swinging off the edge. "Hey Oscar," she smiled as the door swung shut, looking glad to see him. "Is this about Rosie?"

"Yeah, it is," mumbled Oscar, looking embarrassed at himself.

"Don't tell me," said Blane, a look of anger and protectiveness on his face. "It was you who broke Rosie Red's leg, landing her in hospital."

"Not me directly, no, but I was there," replied Oscar. Blane took an angry step forwards, and Oscar raised his hands in surrender. "There was nothing I could do!" Blane lowered his threatening posture.

"Sorry about that. I'm a little tightly strung at the moment. I knew Rosie Red shouldn't have come on this mission – she's great at the techie stuff, not in the field. She's not martial arts like me or deep cover like you – she'd have done more good back at HQ with Lennie and Frank. "

"I'm not disagreeing, mate," said Oscar. "In fact I was thinking the same thing myself when I first arrived. But she's handled herself fine on a lot of missions – while it's not her strong point, she's helped loads of times."

"Hm. I still think that its wrong for a 14 year old to fight those big SKUL guys physically. Anyways, what was it you came for?"

"I'd like to borrow your communicator, if that's alright. Rose had got ours and I need to get a message to HQ."

"Course. Carrie, have you got the medal?"

"No, I lost it," Carrie grinned, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, Blane, 'Have you got the medal?' Was I likely to lose it?" she laughed as she threw the gold-plated disk at Oscar.

"Thanks," he smiled back, amused at Blane's annoyed expression. Flicking the tiny button that opened a line to HQ, Oscar waited for Lennie to answer before he started. "HQ, its Oscar. Rose has disappeared, and I have some things to report."

"Alright Oscar, fire away. Is Rose OK?"

"Well, not really. She's got a broken leg and I think she's been kidnapped, possibly by SKUL."

Lennie's voice was panicked. It was possible to hear him calling Frank in the distance, and then both the mission controllers asked for him to continue.

"I know her leg's broken, quite badly I think. Her cover is tripping over a kerbstone, but in reality…in reality…the bullies broke her leg before leaving her…unconscious…on the pavement." It was incredibly hard for Oscar to say that – his deep caring for Rose was only just becoming clear even to himself. It was the same for Carrie, and Oscar felt that he was only just realising quite how important it was to have a team around you.

Rose's team needed to find her, fast.

"Bullies…left her unconscious? That's dreadful, Oscar, but you mustn't blame yourself – there was nothing that you could do. Right, I assume she has her communicator? Oscar, why do you say that she might be with SKUL?"

"When I couldn't find her, I went and asked Miss Moscow if Rose had found her way back to the orphanage. She told me that Rose had been picked up by Miss Franklin, who took her straight to hospital. I then asked Miss Franklin if I could visit her, but she went very strange and pretty much bit my head off, saying that I couldn't visit Rose before slamming her door without explanation."

"That does seem suspicious. However, we can't send you in to kidnap Miss Franklin, as that would utterly blow your covers. What we can do is trace Rose's communicator signal…there we go…wait; the machine seems to be malfunctioning. It's saying that Rose is at Penhallows, which cant be right. Are you sure that Rose took her communicator with her?"

Oscar was about to answer, but the medal was snatched out of his hands by Blane. "Blane. Sudden thought – HQ is hidden beneath a school, in a place no villain would think to look. Don't rule out the possibility that Rose is still here, in a secret facility, in a place no good guy would think to look."

"That's a great idea, Blane!" enthused Carrie. "If there was a SKUL base beneath the orphanage, where would they access it from? Anyone noticed light switches that don't work or anything?"

"No, but we'll keep a look out. HQ, what should we do?"

"Well, I'm quite sure that Rose is at the orphanage. The communicator beacon says that she is in the school building, but I can't refine the signal past that. Whatever you do, don't make a massive fuss about Rose being gone - that would raise eyebrows – only start really worrying if she doesn't come back by the end of the week as Miss Franklin said. Keep an eye out for suspicious non-working light switches like Carrie said, but don't look for them obviously. You're all doing great. HQ over and out."


	11. Chapter 11

Oscar replaced the medal on Carrie's desk, before climbing the ladder and sitting down on her bunk.

He couldn't stop blaming himself for what had happened to Rose. He should have stayed with her, he thought, he should have stopped those thugs from breaking her leg, he should have…but here his thoughts were interrupted by Carrie, who shifted over and linked her hand with his. "Oscar, you have to stop blaming yourself for this," she said in a quiet voice, Blane nodding from below before sitting down at his desk. "It's not your fault that Rose was getting bullied when you first came. It was the logical thing to do to help the mission to join the bullies. You couldn't have stopped them from hurting her, it would have jeopardised your cover and the mission. I know that Rosie's little and you think it's your job to protect her, but she feels the same way about us – she always has done. She is really good at hiding her emotions, or maybe we aren't that good at picking them up, but if you think about it, she's always trying to protect us, even when we don't need it. Remember when we first met? Our first mission. I don't think that Rose didn't trust us enough to let me go to Africa. I think that trying to stop me from going was instinctive for her. She was the one who immediately said that we had to come and help you when you were at the SKUL Academy – not because she thought you'd joined SKUL, because she didn't want you to get hurt and wanted to help. Rose has always been doing her best to protect us, even if she doesn't realise it herself. Just because you couldn't protect her once, doesn't mean she'll care less about you."

"Mate, Carrie's right," said Blane, spinning around on his chair. "I've known Rose longer than you, and she honestly couldn't care more about you two. And it's also true that she's trying to protect you. Carrie's been telling me about some of your missions together, and you clearly matter more to her than anything else. But being a spy can be dangerous - you can't protect her forever, just as she can't do the same to you. Seriously, its not your fault."

"But it is," said Oscar, his voice low as he tried to control it. "It is my fault. I should have insisted on being first into Penhallows, it was idiotic to let the youngest team member infiltrate it first. She's not even great at fighting - good, not great though. I should have done. I could have convinced Frank and Lennie, probably, since I'm a deep cover specialist."

"Stop it," commanded Blane. "If there's one thing Rosie Red has always hated, it's people wanting to go first or for her to stay back because she's the youngest. To her, the age difference means nothing. No, don't interrupt me yet, hear me out. Daisy and I were on mission with her when she was even younger, it was natural to try and protect her, she was just a kid really, but it really annoyed her. She had to make a massive statement to convince us to stop thinking that she wasn't ready for fieldwork."

"What did she do?" asked Carrie, wondering what spectacular thing Rose would do on a mission. Normally she was the lets-just-get-on-with-it person of the team.

"She broke into the MI9 Headquarters whilst doing back flips and cartwheels. We really annoyed her," said Blane, smiling at the memory of the shock he, Daisy and Lennie had had when they saw what she was doing.

"Wow. Rosie really did that?" said Carrie, disbelieving. Even she wouldn't do that on a mission.

Oscar let them talk around him, feeling a bit better from what they were saying but still desperately guilty. His train of thoughts moved on, until he was thinking about the changes between old Rose and new Rose. He wasn't even sure when old Rose became new Rose, he was just comparing the Rose he first met on his first day at St Hope's to the Rose he was seeing now. Five minutes later, Blane woke him from his trance, warning him that Miss Moscow would be around to check everything was quiet in a minute. Jumping off Carrie's bed, Oscar headed for the door.

That week passed incredibly slowly for all the agents. Daisy and Carrie were much more subdued than they normally were, Miranda commented on Blane being 'a bit down in the dumps' and Oscar tended to bite off the heads of anyone who interrupted him when he was thinking. They were all worried about Rose, but Oscar was especially so - he had an unshakable feeling that Miss Franklin was lying and that Rose was not at any hospital. Thankfully for the team's nerves, on the sixth day of Rose's disappearance Miss Moscow made another announcement during dinner, saying that thankfully, Rose Patel was healing nicely and would be coming home from the hospital on the next day. Oscar could barely contain his sigh of relief that Rose would be back. The next day, knowing that he would be seeing her at dinner put him in high spirits, and he was quite unmanageable in lessons.

Finally it was dinner, and as usual Oscar led the gang down to the dining hall. As he walked through the door he looked expectantly at the corner table, only to be greeted with the sight of the past week - the table was empty. Slightly disappointed that she was not there already, he nevertheless went through the familiar routine of getting food before heading to the table situated in the centre of the room. As he was eating, Oscar constantly sent glances towards the door, expecting it to open at any moment to admit the small girl. He was waiting in vain until around halfway through dinner, when the doors finally opened again. A hush spread across the room, as Miss Moscow marched in, holding the door open for Rose, who was hopping along behind her on crutches, a massive cast protecting her broken leg. She noticed the unnatural quiet, and blushed furiously, looking at the floor. Nobody moved for several moments, while everybody stared at the girl who had never been stared at before. Suddenly, a high voice broke the utter silence. "Well, isn't anybody going to help her?" All the eyes in the room swivelled as one towards the speaker, where everybody was surprised to see Daisy standing up at her table with Carrie and the other girls in their group. Rolling her eyes, Daisy then pushed her way past the seated girls before gracefully walking to the front of the room next to where Rose was standing, before hugging the smaller girl as though they had always been best friends. Rose looked taken aback at this sudden show of friendliness, before Daisy looked exasperatedly at the staring kids and snapped "Just go back to whatever you were doing before." As if she had flicked a switch, the hall erupted with talk. Then Daisy led Rose over to the food counter, before picking up a tray for her and carrying it back to her own table, rose trailing behind her, completely confused at this sudden turn of events.

Rose sat with Daisy, Carrie and their friends all through dinner. The change in her position in the orphanage was sudden and unmistakable - now that the most popular girl there had declared that Rose was worth talking to everybody was asking her questions about her time in hospital, whether her leg still hurt a lot, et cetera, as though she had always been a central member of their group. They hissed in sympathy when she showed them the red marks on her hands from the crutches, they gasped when she told them about how she had had an operation where they had put her to sleep, and generally they managed to draw her out of her shell very effectively.

After dinner, all of the girls offered to walk back to Rose's room together, which Daisy approved. Therefore, with one of the girls carrying her bag and the rest swirling around in a massive, chattering crowd, Rose made her way back to her and Oscar's room with an escort of around 15 girls, all of whom were 2 years older than her. When they got there, Daisy and Carrie came in with her, and when the door had swung shut on the other girls, each hugged Rose before asking a torrent of whispered questions about what had happened. Rose was about to answer, but then she heard a boy pushing his way through the crowd of girls and put a finger to her lips, pointing to the door at the same time. Nodding that they understood, the two older girls instead pulled Rose gently over towards thew bunk bed, before pushing her down onto it and sitting next to her. The door was pushed open, revealing Oscar standing there, but Rose only had a moment to register this before he jumped forwards and hugged her gently, trying to avoid her cast leg. "Rosie!" he said, before being pushed away by Daisy and Carrie.

"Okay, Rosie, now tell us," commanded Daisy, and Oscar obediently sat down on the floor to listen.

"You're not going to believe it, but I didn't actually leave at all," started Rose, but was immediately interrupted with a chorus of "we know" from Daisy, Carrie and Oscar.

"Frank and Lennie traced your communicator signal," explained Oscar.

"I should have guessed. Well..."

_Oooh, cliffhanger! Next chapter will be Rose's POV of the past week. Please review!_


	12. Chapter 12

_This chapter will be the past week from Rose's POV. Please review!  
__**I don't own MI High.**_

Rose came to slowly, her head swimming and a mental fog clouding her thoughts. The first thing she noticed was that the bed she was lying on was a lot more comfortable than she was used to - then the events of the afternoon came rushing back to her and her eyes snapped open as she tried to figure out where she was. Quickly taking in her surroundings, Rose could see that she was in some kind of infirmary, although almost definitely not in a hospital - there was a complete lack of the sharp, offensive smell of disinfectant that characterized hospitals, and the bed was far wider and more comfortable than a hospital would be able to afford.

In the middle of her contemplation of the room, a door swung open to admit a woman in a long black doctors coat, with her blonde hair pulled up into a neat bun and heavy black makeup. When this woman saw that Rose was awake, she smiled, before walking over to the opposite wall and pressing a large button on it. "Finally awake I see. Poor girl, who left you lying on the pavement with a broken leg? They can't be very good friends - I have to say that from the x-ray it doesn't look like a natural break either..." Rose remained silent, observing the woman as she walked around the room adjusting things here and there. "Just as Helly said - you are a quiet one, aren't you? Never mind. The doctor will be along shortly to have another look at your leg, young lady." With that, the woman turned and walked out of the room again.

Rose lay on the large bed, her mind working through what must have happened. She must have fainted from the pain of Max flicking her broken leg, and the gang must have left her on the pavement. Then somebody must have found her - not somebody from the orphanage, as this was definitely not the infirmary at Penhallows, but seemingly not somebody from the village either, as it didn't look at all like a hospital - and if it was, she wouldn't have been given a private room. The people here had already x-rayed her leg, and somebody had told them about her - Helly. This could easily be a shortened version of 'Helena', which was Miss Franklin's first name, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions.

At this point, a man who was also wearing a long black doctors coat entered the room. "Ah, Rose. My name is Dr Stevens, and I'll be looking after that leg of yours. But first, you must have a lot of questions, and it is important that you feel safe and comfortable or you might fight the sedative we will have to put on you, as your leg is unfortunately going to need an operation. So, fire away."

Very quietly, Rose asked "Sir, where am I?" It was important that Dr Stevens thought of her as everybody else in the mission did - quiet, withdrawn, shy, and definitely no spy training.

"Good question. You are at a private medical clinic that is very well-funded and will look after you until you are ready to return to the orphanage."

"Sir, why didn't I go to the local hospital? I can't afford private treatment, and neither can Penhallows..."

The doctor looked very slightly uncomfortable. "Well..." he stuttered, "A ... benefactor who saw you in the village decided to pay for your treatment. Now that your questions are answered," he rushed straight on, "I'm afraid we're going to have to drug you for the operation. Don't worry, the operation isn't long and you won't feel a thing, but now I'm going to need you to relax. You can do that for me, can't you?" When Rose nodded in response, he walked over to a drawer in the table by her bed and pulled it open, revealing many doctor's tools. Choosing a long syringe, Dr Stevens ripped open the sterilised packaging and returned to next to the bed. Rose helpfully pushed up her sleeve, baring her forearm, and the doctor nodded his thanks before injecting the anaesthetic into her vein. The room started to swim, and Rose dropped once more into a deep sleep.

The anaesthetic wore off slowly, and the first thing that Rose was aware of after the injection was a low muttering coming from the end of her bed. Aware that she had company, Rose tried to throw of the grogginess that was a side effect of the general anaesthetic, peeling open her eyes and clearing the heavy fog in her brain. She was aware of a dull ache in her leg, which was encased in heavy plaster, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when it was broken - Rose knew that all the pins were in and the bone was on the road to mending, which was great. She didn't want it affecting the mission more than it had to - after all, if this mission was withdrawn for any reason she would be off active duty for ages while it healed.

Finally, full consciousness returned and Rose could make out who were standing in the room with her. Raising her head slightly, she saw both the blonde nurse and Dr Stevens, as well as a very tall woman with long red hair. This woman was striking - she towered over the two other staff, her hair didn't look dyed at all and easily reached past her back meaning that if she had desired to sit on it she could have done so with ease, and she was wearing a lot of silver jewelery. With a jolt, Rose realised that on her right hand, which was holding a clipboard, there was a collection of rings set with many different stones, and that one bore a familiar ensigna - the skull that stood for everything she and her teams had been fighting against.

That was when Rose fully knew that SKUL had kidnapped her - forget any 'benefactors'. Nevertheless, Rose Patel would never have recognised the symbol...but maybe she would...after all, the Grand Master did enter a general election. Deciding that knowing the name of the organisation would not be out of character for the intellect that she was emulating, Rose asked quietly "Excuse me, but is that the same sign that the Grand Master had? The person in the general election?"

Looking startled as they realised she was awake, Dr Stevens and the nurse rushed over, asking a flurry of questions as to how she felt, whether there was any pain, et cetera. But the red haired woman didn't move from the spot, regarding Rose with an impressed expression on her face. "Oh, the girl's evidently fine now. Leave us alone to talk," she suddenly snapped out at the other two, who immediately went out of the room when she asked them to. "Now then," she said, lowering herself gracefully into the chair by Rose's bed, "In answer to our question, yes, this," she held up the ring and also pulled a necklace bearing the sign out from under her jumper, "is the sign of SKUL. I'm very impressed that you recognised it - not many girls your age feel the need to follow the general election."

"I like politics," said Rose quietly, acting pleased that the woman was impressed.

"As well as science, I hear. On reliable information I am told that you are incredibly clever, Miss Rose. Is that true?"

"Well, I like to read a lot, so I know a few facts."

"More than a few, I believe. But you must wonder how I know of you?" When Rose nodded, the woman got up and moved over to an intercom system on the wall. "Would Helena please report to the medical room. Repeat, would Helena please come to the medical room immediately." Then she sat down again. Rose looked at her questioningly, but the woman merely shook her head with a small smile.

Then there was a knock at the door, before it opened to reveal Miss Franklin in another long black coat. The enthusiastic young science teacher nodded at Rose, who was looking surprised that her teacher was part of a political party - that was all Rose Patel knew about SKUL, after all - before turning respectfully to the red haired woman. "You wanted me, Stephanie?"

"Yes, would you please explain to Rose here what is going on? The poor girl looks incredibly confused as to why her science teacher is also part of a political party."

"Of course, Tess," said Miss Franklin, moving over to sit on the end of Rose's bed. "Well, Rose, SKUL found you lying on the street, unconscious and with a broken leg, and they brought you back here, to their headquarters, so that you could have proper medical care. Of course, they don't so this to every person they find that needs medical attention - our funds need to be directed to other purposes than running an hospital - but you are rather special. I'm talking, of course, about your intelligence. At the age of 14 you are clearly already far cleverer than anybody at the orphanage, including the teachers, and myself! SKUL were very interested when I told them about you, and they asked me if I thought you would mind coming in for a chat. I was planning on asking you the next science lesson, but when my team and I saw you in the village we knew that it would serve our interest to bring you back here. I hope you don't object, but here at SKUL you will get much better treatment and we also have an offer to make you."

Here, Stephanie interrupted Miss Franklin. "You see, Rose, SKUL needs help. Our operations are not running as well as they used to - we have the brawn, but not the brains, you might say. The Grand Master needs intelligent people to help plan and run his operations, and although you are so young, when Helena here brought you to our attention we thought it would be worth seeing if you were willing."

"But wait..." said Rose, "wait a second...isn't SKUL criminal? That's what the media were saying after the Grand Master stepped down..."

"Yes, Rose, SKUL do have many criminal operations running. But here, we would really value your cleverness. Are you valued at Penhallows?"

"No," whispered Rose.

"Do Max, Oscar and the rest of them think you are worth anything?" asked Miss Franklin.

"Worth anything? I'm nothing to them," replied Rose with a slightly angry edge to her voice.

"Well then, Rose, would you like to prove to Max and Oscar that you are worth a lot to many people?" continued Stephanie.

"Yes, I would," said Rose, her voice stronger. "They don't respect me. It's not my fault that I like to read and am cleverer than they will ever be."

"Quite right," Stephanie said, an edge of triumph lacing her words, "quite right. It's shocking, really, how little they really know about you. So can I report that you are willing to give SKUL a try? You will, of course, have the option to back out or leave us at any point, but that would be very disappointing - we need you, Rose."

"Yes," said Rose. "Nobody's ever needed me before. I'll give it a try."

For the rest of the week, Stephanie and Miss Franklin visited Rose every day. She had to stay in bed for most of the week to allow her broken leg time to heal, but didn't mind this at all - they brought her new books every day, which she devoured, and also puzzles, tests and quizzes to keep her occupied. Whenever Stephanie - who was clearly in charge of the Penhallow Operation, as she called it, visited, she would bring some kind of problem that SKUL needed solving - such as the most strategic way to enter a building. Then, five days after Rose woke up at SKUL, she managed to get Stephanie to reveal where the base was located. "Well, to allow ease of access to the orphanage, Rose, we are actually located underneath it. You know the door with no door handle in the school building on the first floor? The hole where the door handle used to go is actually a DNA coded lock. You have to insert a hair into it, and it reads your DNA and either lets you into the lift, or sparks an alarm down here." Rose was shocked at the similarities between the set up beneath Penhallows and the one under St Hopes. Once she was allowed to hobble around using crutches, she was taken to the main operating room. Here, she was shown the school-wide surveillance system that SKUL had set up.

To impress Stephanie and maybe get some revenge, on the sixth day Rose hacked into the security system and had some fun with Max. While he was walking back to his dorm block with his gang all around him, Rose sparked a pipe to burst just as he passed, drenching him in water. He ran all the way back, while Rose and Stephanie laughed down in SKUL HQ. Then on the last day, Stephanie showed Rose the inventing room. Here, there were all the instruments and materials that anybody could need to create a new gadget. Stephanie left Rose there to explore, and when she came back at the end of the day she was shocked to find Rose still in there, having created from scratch a pair of goggles that allowed the wearer to detect laser beams such as the ones used in security systems.

After that, Stephanie worked even harder to try and persuade Rose to join SKUL permanently. Rose acted more and more enthusiastic each time the subject was brought up, which was about once every 10 minutes. At the end of the day, however, Stephanie pointed out that Rose would have to return to Penhallows the next day or people would wonder what had happened. Sighing, Rose agreed as though she was really disappointed to leave, although in reality she couldn't wait to see Oscar ... her team again. Stephanie spent the rest of the evening filling her in as to what her cover story was - basically just that she had gone to hospital.

When Rose returned to the ground floor of Penhallows for the first time in a week, she made her way immediately to the dining hall, s she would miss dinner if she went all the way up to her room first. Miss Moscow intercepted her before she could get there, however, and after asking how she was and whether she was feeling alright, proceeded to walk with her to the hall. When they entered, a dead silence fell over the room. Rose knew exactly what had caused it, and looked at the floor, embarrassed at the attention - after all, she was used to being invisible to everybody at Penhallows. Then she heard a high voice break the silence. "Well, isn't anybody going to help her?" Chancing a glance up, Rose saw Daisy walking quickly and gracefully up the hall, to the shock of everybody. Then Daisy embraced her, before pretty much ordering everyone to go back to what they were doing before.

Rose sat with Daisy, Carrie and their friends for the whole of dinner. They were all very enthusiastic about making friends - the difference between her secluded table in the corner and the table that was considered 'the popular table' was enormous. After, all the girls walked her back to her room, on the pretext of carrying her bag but in reality to protect her from Max and Oscar. When they reached the room, Daisy and Carrie came in with her, and immediately started asking her questions about where she had been. Hearing a voice outside that didn't belong to any of the girls, however, Rose instead allowed herself to be pushed gently onto the bed, before the door opened.

Oscar stood in the doorway for a split second before jumping forwards, but this split second was enough for Rose's breath to catch in her throat as she realised just how much she'd missed him. Then all sight was obscured as he hugged her gently, avoiding her cast leg. After too short a time, Daisy and Carrie pushed him away, and repeated their questions as to what had happened. Resolving to talk to Oscar later on, when they had left, Rose began her story of the past week.

_Ooh, does Rose have a little crush on Oscar? Wait till next chapter to find out!  
__Please review!_


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapter 13! Please please review!  
__**I don't own MI High.**_

"So you've been recruited by SKUL?" asked Daisy, her voice incredulous. Oscar could understand her slight disbelief - for some reason nobody had expected Rosie Red to make the first contact with SKUL - the expected people had always been Carrie and Blane for their obvious physical skills.

"Yeah," said Rose, looking pleased with herself, as if she knew exactly what they were thinking. "Stephanie said that they had the physical strength they needed, but they needed somebody to look after the technical side of things."

Carrie was about to say something, but everybody froze when they heard a familiar loud voice moving down the corridor, closer and closer to Oscar and Rose's room. Daisy and Carrie looked around in panic - it was one of Miss Moscow's set-in-stone rules that there were no room visits allowed. While the pupils largely ignored this rule, if you were caught in somebody else's room you could easily be facing a month's detention on the side of a massive lecture from Miss Moscow. Carrie and Daisy were trapped; if they left the room Miss Moscow would see them running down the corridor, and if they stayed where they were she would catch them when she put her head around the door. When spy kids were undercover even they had to obey the rules put down by the adult in charge.

Not for nothing, though, had the head of MI9 allowed them to stay working as a team. Oscar stuck his head around the door, monitoring her progress, while Carrie and Daisy removed their impractical ballerina pumps in preparation for the sprint. When she looked into the room two doors down from Oscar and Rose, he whispered, "Go!" and opened the door. Daisy and Carrie slipped past him and sprinted in the opposite direction to the way Miss Moscow was headed – she would have little reason to come back the way she had came. If the undercover spy kids couldn't fool an untrained house matron, they weren't good enough to spy for MI9 anyway.

Once they had gone, Oscar sat down next to Rose on the bed and leaned back against the wall. She put her head on his shoulder, and this was how Miss Moscow saw them when she looked in. Her expression instantly changed to shock and surprise – it was the first time that she had ever seen Rose being friendly with somebody. "Rose…" she stuttered, clearly taken aback. "We're so glad that you're back safe and sound. I just wanted to say," she continued, her expression wiping back to her usual severe façade as she regained her composure, "that Oscar, I would like you to come and talk to me after breakfast tomorrow in my room. Nothing bad, don't worry, I just need to talk to you. Now, I want lights out in 10 minutes. Good night."

"Good night, Miss Moscow" replied Oscar, shifting Rose's head slightly. Once she had shut the door again, he leant back again, and Rose brought her good leg up underneath her as she snuggled against him.

"Missed you, Oscar," she mumbled quietly.

"I missed you too, Rosie Red." Oscar noticed that him calling her Rosie Red had ceased to annoy her like it used to. "But tell me about last week again. Where did you say the entrance was?"

"It's in the school building, in that room with the broken off door handle. No chance of us getting in without revealing ourselves – it's a DNA coded lock."

"Guess we'll have to wait until we can't stay undercover anymore, then. Never mind. You're so clever, Rosie, getting SKUL interested first out of all of us."  
"Small but mighty," she giggled quietly, turning so that she was comfortable. Oscar chuckled too at the repetition of the phrase Blane had used to describe her, and they stayed that was or a while, lying comfortably on Oscar's bed.

"Time for bed, Rosie," he announced several minutes later, only to discover that she had fallen asleep on him. Chuckling again, Oscar gently moved her until she was lying on his bed properly, before easing the duvet out from underneath her and covering her with it. He then got ready for bed himself, before climbing the ladder and lying down on the top bunk. He assumed that this would be the way around things would be for a while – Rose couldn't be expected to climb the ladder with that bulky cast on her leg.

The next morning, after breakfast, Oscar made his way up towards the teacher's floor. Rose had sat with Daisy and Carrie again, meaning that Max had vetoed going to get a book from her – even though he had caused her to be in hospital for a week, he wasn't letting up. Glad that he was relieved from this job, Oscar was in good spirits, and took the stairs two at a time.

Knocking politely on Miss Moscow's door, Oscar wondered what he had been summoned for. This question was soon answered when the door opened. "Ah, Oscar. Do come in and take a seat. Now, I wanted to talk to you about Rose Patel. You might remember that on your first day here I told you that she was very withdrawn and never spoke unless she was spoken to. Now, from what I gathered last night she has opened up a bit to you?"

Wondering how Miss Moscow could notice that Rose had been leaning on him last night, but hadn't noticed the daily bullying that had happened right underneath her nose, Oscar nodded, replying "Yes Miss, she does seem a bit more comfortable around me than she did when I first arrived."

"Well, I was wondering if she's ever seemed to be keeping a secret? A big secret. Not, obviously, just because she is quiet – that seems to be her natural personality – but she has always struck me as someone who is hiding something."  
"I'm not sure, Miss," said Oscar, surprised that his feeling that Rose was hiding something was shared by the forbidding house matron who had easily over 100 children to look after. "Sometimes I think she's about to tell me something, but she always pulls back. Is that what you mean?"

"I think it might be," said Miss Moscow in a considered voice. "Would you mind trying to bring her out a bit further, try and get her to confide in you? I think it would really help her to get this secret off her chest, if it exists."

"Of course, Miss. I'll do my best," promised Oscar.

"Thank you. You are always so helpful, Oscar. Now, I'll just write you a note to excuse you from being late to your lesson…there. Do tell me if she says anything that worries you."

"I will. Thank you," said Oscar as he took the note and left.

During lessons that day, Oscar kept sneaking glances at Rose. She was acting exactly the same as she always had – very quiet, never volunteering answers and studiously making notes as the teacher spoke. She kept her crutches lying on the floor by her desk, and had become very adept at moving around the school with them, to the extent that she was no slower than anybody else. Oscar wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, but whatever it was, he didn't find it.

That evening, when they called HQ, Oscar and Rose discussed the best course of action with Lennie and Frank. The mission controllers put forwards the option of withdrawing Rose due to her injury, but she vehemently denied any need to set the mission back by her disappearing. SKUL had just made contact with her, she argued, so her leaving could set the mission back loads. The team had decided before that before they could send the troops in to shut down this pocket of SKUL, at least two agents should have been approached. Lennie agreed with this, but he warned Rose that she had to be careful. Now that she would not really be able to defend herself against the agents of SKUL, it was imperative that she avoided suspicion.

At this point, Oscar butted into the conversation. "Hey, Oscar here. Why do we even need two agents in? What's wrong with sending a SWAT team in now? Get this mission over before they start suspecting Rose, which would put her in danger."

"Oscar, I thought we'd been through this. Two agents need to be far enough into the loop for SKUL to calibrate the lock to accept their DNA permanently. For the SWAT team to get in, we will need her to open the door multiple times as they won't all fit into the lift at once. Then we also need someone already down in the base to try and get this Stephanie on her own, preferably without a load of guards. The head of MI9 has said that she would prefer for Stephanie to be unharmed."  
"But if we laser the lock on the door the SWAT team could get in and Rose could be down in the base."

"That would probably spark an alarm, like any security breach at MI High would. Oscar, lets wait another month. If SKUL don't make contact with anybody else we'll do it your way – I'm sure it will work, there will just be a bigger face off between SKUL and the SWAT."  
"OK. We should probably go now."

"Alright. Check in tomorrow. HQ over and out."

Oscar vaulted up onto the top bunk not bothering to use the ladder, making Rose giggle at his showing off. He had always found Rose's light giggle infectious, and he laughed along with her. She hopped over to the lower bunk, and Oscar heard her lying down. Deciding to scare her, he waited a few minutes before hooking his legs around the bar that ran around the top bed and easing himself over it, until he was hanging upside down over the end of the bed, his head just above Rose's. Once he was in this position, he blew in her ear.

Rose bolted upright and clapped a hand to her mouth. Unable to contain his amusement, Oscar laughed, before lowering himself until he was sitting next to her on the bed. Rose pretended to slap him, hissing, "You scared the living daylights out of me!"

"Sorry, Rosie, couldn't resist." He then leant back against her headboard with a gesture that conveyed quite clearly that he wasn't going to move back to his bed for a while.

"You're not going to move, are you?" questioned Rose, and when he smugly shook his head, she sighed and leaned back too, her head on his shoulder.

"Rosie," began Oscar, aware that this was as good a time as any to bring up the topic, "you do know that you can tell me anything?"

"Of course I do, Oscar," said Rose, slightly confused. "I do."

"Are you sure, Rosie Red? You seem very different recently, and I was wondering if everything's OK."

A look of comprehension dawned on her face. "Oh. I'm fine, Oscar, I promise nothing's wrong. I…I can't promise…that everything has always been…OK…or that it always will be, but right now, I'm so happy and nothing's wrong at all."

"Rose, why do you say that? What wasn't OK before?"

"It doesn't matter, Oscar. I'm happy now, I'm safe now, I'm wonderful in absolutely every way now. What does anything else matter?"

"Do you mind me asking another question?" asked Oscar.

"Of course, but I can't promise to answer it. I promise I won't lie, though."

"When I was at the SKUL Academy, when I went undercover in SKUL, when I stood out of Operation Flopsy. Did you ever, for a second, think that I might really be thinking of joining SKUL?"

Rose was clearly glad of the slight change of topic. "Only once, Oscar. When you threw the gobstopper at Carrie and me in the SKUL Academy. But even then I didn't think you wanted to join SKUL. I thought the pull of being with your mum was so strong you would try to overcome your hatred of SKUL."

"You never thought that the actual idea of SKUL appealed to me?"

"Oscar, please don't think I did. You are such a good person – you would never want to join an evil organization like SKUL. And I…know what wanting a proper family is like. It's a strong, strong feeling. I thought that it was possible that your mum had convinced you that you two could be a family within SKUL." Only two details of this stood out to Oscar. First, Rose thought that he was too good a person to join SKUL. She didn't think that he would resist the temptation – she thought that the temptation would never exist in the first place. It was true; he realized only now – SKUL had never appealed, his mother had. But he was well over her now. She was in prison and serves her right. What Frank had said was right - he needed to stop thinking that his team were watching him for any SKUL-like tendencies.

The other detail was that Rose said she knew what it was to want a proper family. This confused Oscar.

Surely she already had one?

Blane had told him about when Mr. Gupta had come to St Hopes to try to persuade her to move to a fancy school where her intelligence would be more valued. He wouldn't do that if he didn't care about her.

Rose saw his confusion and seemed to realize what she'd said. "Oh! No, forget I said anything, Oscar. I could just imagine what it must feel like…" she trailed off, seeing that he didn't believe her one bit.

"Rosie?" he asked

"It's nothing, Oscar. Really. Anyway, isn't it time for bed?" Rose was clearly trying to avoid the subject, but Oscar nevertheless nodded slowly, before vaulting again onto the top bunk. "Sometimes I think we should just ask for the ladder to be taken away. You never use it anyway," came Rose's voice from below him. Oscar chuckled, but inside his mind was furiously working through every detail of the past conversation he had had with Rose, trying to figure out what she had meant.


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter 14! Please review.  
__**I don't own MI High.**_

The next week passed in an uninteresting way – nothing really happened at all. Rose's status had changed slightly in the social hierarchy – Daisy and Carrie protected her from Oscar and Max during all the mealtimes. However as they weren't in her lessons, the bullying didn't stop completely, although it was much better than it had been before. Max had started delivering his homework to Rose again, Oscar still had to be horrible to her out of their room and Rose still had to act terrified. On the Friday, Miss Franklin asked Rose to stay behind after the Science lesson. She did so, hoping that this was a continuation of SKUL's interest. Sure enough, Miss Franklin told her to go down to the base after lessons had finished for the day, and Rose left the classroom excited for what Stephanie would want.

After school, then, instead of following everyone into the Dorm buildings to drop her bag, Rose went straight to the broken door and pulled out one of her hairs, entering it into the space the handle should have gone. There was a beep, before the door swung open. When she went in, Rose saw that the lift was disguised as a store cupboard – not like Frank's, one that kept textbooks and spare exercise books too. She stood in the middle of it, looking around for anything that could be a lever or button that would make the lift go down. She couldn't see anything, and she looked around, confused. Suddenly, though, a mechanical voice said 'Going down', and Rose felt the familiar feeling of the floor dropping out from underneath her feet.

When the lift arrived, Rose realized that she was now wearing a black and red uniform. She had a red shirt under a black jacket that had a high collar, and a black skirt hemmed with red thread. She had red tights and flat black strappy shoes. It wasn't very practical for fighting, but the difference between SKUL and MI High had always been that in SKUL there were the people who were good at fighting and the people with brains, whereas in MI High all agents were expected to be able to hold their own in a fight. The clothes were also all a bit too big for her, unlike the ones at MI High which fitted perfectly.

Rose hopped forwards on her new black crutches, towards the two chairs and small table at the far end of the hall. Stephanie was sitting in one of them, her red hair pinned tightly into a bun at the top of her head. "Ma'am?" she said, unsure of whether she was meant to be here or not.

"Ah, Rose, you're hear. That was very fast, dear, considering when classes end and your current condition. Very impressive."

"Thank you," said Rose, smiling at the praise.

"Well, I asked you down here for two reasons, Rose. Firstly, we're having a lot of trouble with the laser cutters and I was wondering if you could have a look at them for me?"

"Of course,' said Rose. "Should I go to the invention room?"

"That would be lovely dear, thank you. Everything you will need will be there, and I'll be along to tell you the second reason very soon." Rose nodded, before turning and heading to the right door – during the week she has spent down here she had learnt her way around very effectively.

Rose was working on the fault with the laser cutters – it was really quite simple, just a matter of the battery not being powerful enough for the range the SKUL agents were using them for – when there was a knock at the door and Stephanie entered, a long black coat now covering her red silk top and stylish black trousers. Her stiletto heels clicked as she walked over to the bench were Rose was working. "I'm very nearly done, ma'am, Rose said, sliding the new battery into the slot and twisting the wires together.

"Splendid," said Stephanie, leaning over and looking at what she was doing. "Well, I'm sure somebody else can take it from here now that we know what the problem was. As it is, I need you to come and meet someone." Rose immediately slid off her seat, picking up her crutches and following Stephanie. At the door to the lab she took off her black coat and hung it up. Stephanie then led her back towards the lift.

When they reached the table, Rose noticed that there was an extra chair there. Stephanie sat down and gestured for Rose to do the same. "Well," she began once they were both seated, "as you know, Rose, Miss Franklin keeps an eye out for any potential agents for us in Penhallows. There is another very promising student in your year – your academic year, not your age – and he's been invited down here. He should be down in a minute. Before he arrives, I want to ask your opinion on him. So, what do you think of Oscar Wilde?"

-**_-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-_**

Oscar was in his room doing homework when there was a knock on the door. He got up and opened the door, expecting to see one of the gang, although admittedly they didn't usually knock anymore, and so he was quite surprised when he saw Miss Franklin standing there. "Miss! Are you looking for Rose? I'm afraid she's not here now," he said, although he was very aware that Rose was exactly where Miss Franklin had told her to be.

"No, Oscar, I'm not looking for Rose. I was instead rather wondering if you would mind coming with me for a minute? You're not in trouble - quite the opposite in fact." Oscar nodded and eagerly followed her down the hallway, hoping that this was the SKUL contact the team had been hoping for. Sure enough, Miss Franklin led him into the school building and to the lift door. Here she tugged out one of her hairs, before inserting it into the hole. Staying in character, Oscar looked at her with a puzzled expression. Miss Franklin looked amused at this, before the door beeped and she pushed it open.

"Miss?" Oscar asked dubiously, following her into the cupboard. "Why are we in a storage cupboard and why did you pull out a hair to get in?"

"Don't worry, Oscar, all will be revealed shortly," said the young teacher. Then a mechanical voice interrupted saying 'Going down', and Oscar felt the floor plunge away from under his feet. A second later when the doors slid open, he realized that the lift had changed his clothes just like the one at MI High did - now he was wearing black trousers and a black shirt with red bands around the arms, and sturdy black boots. He stared at Miss Franklin, who smiled at him and led the way out of the long corridor and into a small room containing only a table, four chairs and a pot plant. "Take a seat," invited Miss Franklin, whose clothes had also changed into black jeans and a red top. Her hair had come out of its bun too, and was now brushed out and held back by a black and red band that went all the way around her head. "Now, Oscar. As you can see, Penhallow Orphanage houses a secret organisation that hardly anybody knows about. We are called SKUL. We like to keep a lookout for potential new agents, and we believe that you may have some qualities that would benefit us greatly."

"Wow! Really?" enthused Oscar. "A secret group? That's really cool. What do you want me to do?"

"Glad to see that you're enthusiastic. Well, SKUL thinks that your inherent ability to make everybody like you and trust you will be a very valuable skill for a cover agent to have - that's somebody who specializes in pretending to be someone who they're not - and have asked me to ask you if you're interested in this."

"Wow, Miss! That sounds really cool." Oscar didn't like being this enthusiastic, it was completely out of character for him. But that was what Oscar Wilde would have done, so that was what he had to do.

"Before you stick right in, there are a few things we need to discuss. First of all I should bring it to your attention that SKUL is a criminal organisation. MI9 are constantly trying to catch our agents, and they will try to catch you too if you join us. SKUL will obviously try their best to avoid this from happening, but it is not guaranteed that you will not be caught. Secondly, you would have to obey all the orders you are given without question, at least until you are higher in the ranks. Finally, you will be expected to undergo training before you can fully join SKUL, and this will turn you into a very skilled agent. Are you still willing?"

"Of course! Criminal just makes it cooler," said Oscar.

"Wonderful. Now, I'm aware that you share a room with Rose Patel. This is most convenient, as she too has been recruited for her brainpower."

"Wait what? Shrimp...I mean Rose...is here too?" asked Oscar, forcing disbelief and incredulity into his voice - he was meant to detest Rose, after all.

"Yes, and the leader of this operation - who is called Stephanie, although you will address her at all times as Ma'am - values her highly. I couldn't care less how you treat her out of here, but while you are in base you will treat her with _respect._ Is that very clear?"

"Yes Miss," mumbled Oscar, looking awkwardly at the floor.

"Good. well then, let's go and meet her and Stephanie!" With that, Miss Franklin stood up again and walked out of the room, Oscar on her heels.

**-_-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-_**

_"Before he arrives, I want to ask your opinion on him. So, what do you think of Oscar Wilde?"_

Rose stared. SKUL had made contact with another agent? That was a huge step forwards for the mission. "I...don't...like him much, ma'am," she said very quietly, staring at her hands which were folded in her lap.

"Yes, Helly did say that might be the case. But putting that dislike for him aside, do you think he would make a good agent?"

"Ma'am, surely I'm not the right person to ask? I've only been here for a few weeks."

"Nevertheless, Rose, I value your opinion," said Stephanie, smiling warmly at her. Rose was almost shocked that a criminal could be so friendly, even though she had seen SKUL agents in all shapes and sizes since she had joined MI High.

"Well..." she replied, considering her answer, "everybody likes him. As soon as he came everybody liked him and trusted him. Max wanted him in the gang from his very first day here."

"That is one of the qualities in him that we are interested in, his ability to make friends. You see unlike yourself, he would be a cover agent - someone who went out into the field and pretended to be somebody else. Anything else?"

"He's...he's not very clever," said Rose. After all, she was meant to hate Oscar, so this seemed like a plausible thing to say. "He...he makes me do his homework for him."

"Yes...I thought as much from what Helly told me and from the surveillance. Poor Rose, you haven't really made any friends in your time here, have you? Ah well. Helly will have made him promise to be civil to you down here - I'm afraid we can't tell him to stop being nasty normally."

"Don't worry, ma'am, I'm used to it," said Rose with a resigned air. Stephanie smiled again, before pressing a button on the communicator at her waist. Seconds later, a door opened further down the passage and Miss Franklin walked out, accompanied by Oscar. The SKUL uniform made him look strong and ruthless, so it was easy for Rose to slip into her cover and shrink back in her seat, her head dropping and her hair falling forwards to hide her face.

"Ah, Helly. So this is Oscar. Glad to meet you in the flesh, young man."

"And yourself, ma'am. It's an honour to meet you too," replied Oscar, his charm on fully.

"I believe that you know Rose here quite well?" asked Stephanie, clearly testing the waters.

"Yeah, I share a room with Shrimp...Rose. I have done since I arrived."

"You know her better than that, if the surveillance cameras show anything. But like Helly here said - civility is expected between all agents whenever they are down here, **is that understood?"**

"Yes ma'am," replied Oscar quickly.

"Very good, please take a seat. that will be all, Helly," she directed at Miss Franklin, who nodded and spun on her heel, heading deeper into the SKUL base. "Well now. You two have both been recruited because you possess different skills that we believe that with careful cultivation will make you into excellent agents. Rose, your intelligence and technical genius have already been proved to us. Oscar, we have noticed your social skills and Rose attests to the fact that you can make friends with anyone. We're delaying your basic training until Rose's leg is healed, as all agents need to have some knowledge of self-defense, and we want to train you together to save the hassle of running two training programmes. Therefore, as our doctors say that Rose will be fit to train in about seven months. Sorry for the delay, Oscar, but you two will often be working as a pair so training together will be very useful. If I need to talk to you again, Helly will let you know. Dismissed." With this, Stephanie stood up, turned around and walked gracefully in the same direction as Miss Franklin had. The two double agents also stood, Rose sliding her arms into her crutches, and walked back to the lift.


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter 15! Things are getting more exciting! Please review.  
__**I don't own MI High.**_

That evening, Oscar and Rose contacted HQ to let them know the latest developments. Everyone was thrilled that finally two agents were in - the end of the mission was in sight now. All that remained was for the team to coordinate the arrival of the SWAT team so that the students weren't terrified, and for the plans for the attack to be made. In order for this to happen, the head of MI9 had to be brought in along with, unfortunately, Chief Agent Stark. Frank and Lennie coordinated it so that all the spies called in at the same time, allowing for a conference call of sorts to take place. As usual, Stark was all for getting the teenagers out of there as soon as possible so that they didn't blow it. "If Rose was to let the SWAT team in, they could all go down and the whole team could be out of there before things really became physical at all," was his constant refrain. Nobody even bothered to remind him that Oscar could just as easily let them all in - Stark had never trusted Oscar and had never listened to anybody who criticized him for this.

"With respect, Chief Agent Stark, ma'am said that Stephanie was to be unhurt if possible. Wouldn't the best way of doing that would be if I was down in the base with her while Oscar let SWAT in - I could get her on her own?" Rose had always tried to be very polite to Stark, calling him by his rank and seeming to leave the decisions to him. As a result, he liked her a lot more than he liked Oscar or Carrie.

"You may be right, Agent Gupta, but I still hold my belief that risking one of you getting hurt in a very dangerous operation is unnecessary and unneeded."

"But we're MI9 too, Stark! We've all been trained in martial arts, we won't get hurt. it's our job to fight the bad guys," protested Blane.

"You all seem to be forgetting that Agent Gupta is on crutches! She won't be able to hold her own, she'll be in serious danger! I hold up that the only way to do this is by sending a SWAT team down while only SKUL agents are down there, ma'am."

"Stark, I think there is something to be said for Agent Gupta getting Stephanie on her own. I **do not** want her injured in any way, is that clear? Any way. And Agent Gupta has an open invitation to go down to the base whenever she wants to work on the gadgets - it would be the perfect excuse. Frank, Lennie, do you think leaving Agent Gupta down there will severely endanger her?"

"I think that Blane is right to point out that the team's job is to fight SKUL, which they can't do if we never let them into any dangerous situations. I think Rose will be able to handle herself sufficiently." replied Lennie.

"Oh, and I suppose that now you're going to get Agents Cole, Stewart, Miller and Whittaker coming down with SWAT to fight now, are you?" snarled Stark, clearly angry at having been overruled - again.

"I was thinking about it," said the head of MI9 seriously. "At the very least one of them should go down to help Agent Gupta out quickly. But then the martial expertise could also be useful...alright, I've made my decision and your opinion will not change it, Stark. All the MI High agents will be coming down with the SWAT team. Agents Cole and Miller, your primary objective is getting Agent Gupta out, quickly. Agents Whittaker and Stewart, you will be helping the SWAT team in the arrests - Frank will come and join you. Stark, you will be commanding the SWAT team. All clear?"

Echoes of 'all clear, ma'am' ran through the team, although Stark sounded very grudging about it. "Right then. Agent Gupta, this Saturday you will go down to the base and head straight to the invention room. Continue work on whatever is lying around - if there isn't anything just start making something. I'm sure that Stephanie will be along soon enough to ask why you are there. As soon as she is in with you, Agent Cole will let the SWAT team into the lift and everyone will come down. Three agents will come straight to the invention room to arrest Stephanie - the rest will sweep the base looking for people. Lennie, we will need you to arrange for the orphanage kids to be taken somewhere so that they don't interfere. Everyone still clear? Good. All agents report in at 9.30 tomorrow, when we will update plans. Over and out."

_**-Break-**_

Saturday drew closer and closer. The days that the agents had left on the mission could be counted on one hand - SKUL had made contact far sooner than MI9 had expected them to, and the mission would be wrapped up in under six months instead of the year Frank had predicted at the beginning. Oscar was eagerly anticipating the day the mission ended - not because he wanted to go back to the house he shared with another MI9 agent, nobody could really be homesick when that was their home - but because he would finally be able to get Rosie out of this situation. He didn't remember quite when he had started feeling quite so protective of Rose, but he definitely would relish the feeling that he knew there would be nothing to worry about in a weeks time.

_Sorry everyone! I know this chapter's quite a lot shorter than normal but the next one is going to have to be quite long. It should be up by the end of the weekend!  
_Please review!


	16. Chapter 16

_And here it is! To apologise for the shortness of Chapter 15, this one's going to be a lot longer and will have much more action! Please review!  
__**As always, I don't own MI High.**_

Finally, Saturday dawned. Oscar and Rose rolled out of bed at 7.00, which was absurdly early for Oscar and later than usual for Rose, who usually was awake by 4.30 and read with a torch until it was light enough to get dressed. As a result, Rose was ready to leave looking fresh and bright at 7.15, and had to sit on the lower bunk reading for another half an hour while Oscar tried to wake himself up and get ready. The plan was that all the agents would meet down in the village at 8.00 to go over the plan one more time - Stark insisted on believing that all the MI High agents were incapable of remembering a simple plan for over 12 hours - before they all went into breakfast. Rose would head straight down after breakfast, and the cavalry would move in at 9.30. By then all the orphanage children would hopefully be at the fairground Lennie had organized for them - any loiters would be dealt with using the gobstoppers Oscar had been given at the beginning of the mission.

Once Oscar was ready, he headed out with Rose, careful not to appear too friendly in case someone came around the corner. They made it to the meeting point just in time, and as they walked - or in Rose's case hopped - up to the group, Stark was looking at his watch, clearly hoping that they would be late so that he could criticize them and possibly recommend to the head of MI9 that their unit be shut down for good. He looked up with a disappointed expression on his face when he realised that they were not even a second late, and Rose and Oscar shared grins with Carrie, Daisy and Blane. Even though Daisy and Blane had never met Stark before the mission, they knew him well enough to hate him for his dislike of the teenage spies.

"Well, now we're all here, we might as well start," said Stark, trying to assert his authority over everybody at the gathering. "We're here to..."

"Run through the plan one last time," completed Daisy and Blane in unison, before looking at each other and stifling laughs.

"Yes," said Stark in his famous 'you have very nearly crossed the line agents and I will blow soon' voice that he used at least twice during every mission. "So Agent Gupta will go down straight after breakfast and head to the invention room."

"Yes sir," replied Rose, in such a respectful and agreeing tone that Oscar had to disguise his laugh as an overly large cough. Rose was desperate not to be taken off the mission due to her injury, and was clearly doing everything she could to make Stark let her stay on.

"Agent Cole, you will be around the area of the lift from 0900 hours. The SWAT team show up, you let them in. Then come down on the next lift with Agents Miller, Whittaker, Stewart and London."

"Certainly sir," said Oscar, imitating Rose's formal address of the senior agent. Watching his blood pressure rise was an activity that Oscar always found immensely enjoyable.

Looking suspiciously at Oscar, confused by his unusually polite tone, Stark continued "Agents Cole and Miller, your primary objective is to find and protect Agent Gupta. Get her out of there ASAP. Agents Whittaker and Stewart, you will join the SWAT team. Agent London will lead you." Blane, Daisy and Carrie replied with military style salutes which they had obviously rehearsed. This proved to be the final straw for Agent Stark. "Don't you take **any **mission seriously? There will be serious danger on this mission and yet you **insist** on fooling around as though this was training!"he exploded at them.

"Sorry Agent Stark," apologised Rose, even though she hadn't done anything to anger him. Stark's rage cooled slightly, and then he looked embarrassed at himself and his outburst.

"Well. Accepted, I supposed. Now, breakfast, and _**don't forget the plan**!_" he shouted after them as all the agents turned around as one and walked back up towards Penhallows.

As they walked slowly back, the agents ad their first proper group talk since the beginning of the mission. Blane and Daisy were holding hands, which Oscar saw Rose looking pleased about - when she saw that he had noticed she whispered "I've been wanting it to happen for years, they are perfect for each other but they never had the courage to own up to it." Carrie was chatting to Blane about the best style of martial arts to use against the SKUL agents, Daisy was joining in with this conversation even though she wouldn't be fighting the SKUL guys much as she was helping Rose, and Oscar and Rose were walking and hopping next to each other, not talking much but content to be quiet.

"So, Rosie," said Oscar, breaking the silence, "Mission will probably be over by tomorrow. But we'll have to stay at Penhallows for what, another 2 months max? Lennie said they had to draw us out one by one as us all disappearing at once would be suspicious."

"Yeah," replied Rose tonelessly, her happy expression becoming rather forced-looking. "Yeah, it'll be nice to be back at St Hopes."

"Hey, you OK, Rosie Red? What's up?" asked Oscar, his mind once again whirring as he tried to figure out what was upsetting her.

"Geez, Oscar, you know me too well. I'll just miss being on a mission, living in a different world..."

"Sharing a room with me?" said Oscar, his voice joking.

"Oscar Cole, if I wasn't using my hands to walk I'd probably slap you. Conceited person. But..yes, I'll miss that too." Oscar chuckled at her face, where there was a war raging between annoyance and amusement. Blane's voice broke through the chatter of the others.

"OK guys, time to split up. I think a lot of people would have questions if we all walk in together."

"I'll go in first," said Rose quietly. "I need to be out quickly."

"I'm next," Oscar broke in.

"OK, then Carrie and I can go in together, and Daisy, you come in last," directed Blane. Everybody nodded, and Rose immediately started going faster on her crutches. Once she was gone, Oscar waited a few minutes before following, his arrogant smirk set firmly on his face. Max immediately waved him over, and he took his accustomed seat at Max's right hand side.

"Looking forwards to this fair? Should be a laugh," Max began, and the chatter around the table instantly geared up around the subject of the fun fair, allowing Oscar to sink into his own thoughts of later, only requiring him to look interested and sometimes say 'yeah' or 'mmm'. He kept an eye on the door, and saw Blane and Carrie, and then Daisy enter. Five minutes later, he saw Rose stand up from out of the corner of his eye, slide her hands into her crutches and make her way out of the hall. Aware that the mission was starting, Oscar caught Daisy's eye across the crowded hall and nodded slightly.

The invasion had begun.

Ten minutes later, Miss Moscow stood up, announcing that the bus would be there to take the kids to the fair very soon, and ordering everybody to make their way to the main gate. Oscar gave Max the slip by saying that he had left something in his room, before running into the school building. After five minutes of waiting by the store cupboard door, Blane, Carrie and Daisy all ran up next to him, dressed ready to fight in more comfortable clothes and shoes. "Wonder where Stark and the goons are?" Daisy said, her voice amused at the irony of them waiting for Stark after he had been so desperate for Oscar to be late that morning.

"I don't know but I wish he's hurry up. I want to get Rose out of there," said Oscar tensely. The change in his whole character and demeanor from the boy who had sat with Max at breakfast was startling. Oscar Wilde would never be viewed as a serious threat - despite his good build he had never learnt to fight - but Oscar Colin action mode was a sight that would scare most people. Gone was his slight slouch and easygoing sarcastic grin - in their place was a boy who stood tall, with a fierce expression.

"Easy, Oscar. Rose'll be fine. There's no reason for anyone to suspect her," said Carrie soothingly.

"Oscar, you look like you're about to explode. Calm down," Daisy said in a slightly less soothing voice. Blane was clearly about to contribute too, but suddenly the doors behind them burst open and a fully armed SWAT team charged down the corridor, Chief Agent Stark at the head of the formation. Nodding brusquely to the agents, Stark then motioned for Oscar to open the door, which he promptly did. The sight of the renowned SWAT team standing in a small storage cupboard would have been vaguely amusing at another, less stressful time, but now Oscar's mind had only one focus - get Rose out. The door slammed shut, and after a few seconds the mechanical 'Going down' was heard, before there was a small flash of light from behind the shut door. As soon as it had gone, Oscar yanked out another hair and shoved it into the lock, pushing the door as he did so.

But the door didn't open.

Instead there was a message from the mechanical voice. "Oscar Wilde is already down in base. You are an imposter. A security breach has been recorded, and an agent will be on their way up within the next few seconds. You cannot escape." The team looked at each other wildly. What were they going to do now? No one would come up to get them, as the SWAT team would be wreaking havoc, but they couldn't get in to follow their objectives. "Alright..." said Carrie, Attack Plan Theta obviously in her mind, "leave this to me." Taking a few steps back, she then tried to kick the door down like she had in so many missions. But all she got for her trouble was a loud cracking sound.

"It's no use, the lock won't open by force," snapped Oscar, his anxiety increasing by the second. "Blane! Laser gum?" Blane quickly produced the laser, firing it at the lock. Still nothing happened.

"Do it around the lock," instructed Daisy. Nodding, Blane lasered a wide arc around the complex lock, before Carrie karate slammed the door again. This time, it gave in, and the agents quickly piled into the storeroom. The mechanical voice calmly informed them that the lift was going down, and a split second later the doors opened on chaos.

The SWAT team were fighting in formation, slamming the bad guys right, left and centre. But the SKUL agents were fighting back, and it was impossible to tell which side was winning. Carrie and Blane plunged straight into the fight, looking incredibly out of place in tracksuits next to the heavily armored SWAT and SKUL agents. Daisy looked at Oscar, the her head whipped round to look at Blane, before turning to Oscar again. Suddenly a yell from the fight cut through the grunts of the men - Daisy whipped around again to see Blane on the floor, a massive SKUl agent above him. he was obviously in pain, and even before it happened Oscar knew what was coming - Daisy turned once more, yelled "Sorry, Oscar!" before spinning and racing into the battle. With a neat karate chop the agent above Blane was knocked unconscious, and she dropped to her knees next to her boyfriend. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to get her to leave him, Oscar left her and raced down the corridor towards the invention room.

When he reached the black door, Oscar kicked it down and charged in, shouting "MI9, nobody move!" As soon as these words left his mouth, however, a dreadful sight met his eyes. Stephanie was sitting calmly on one of the desks, her legs swinging slightly. Two SKUL agents were standing either side of her, their aggressive posture contrasting sharply with the small smile on Stephanie's face. And lying on the floor, in a tangle of arms and legs and crutches, lay Rose. She was only semi-conscious, and there was a horrible gash down one side of her face. Her hands were tied together and she lay right under Stephanie's feet.

When he saw this, Oscar quite literally growled. His defensive posture became aggressive, and he was just about to start beating up the guys who had done this to Rose when a clear voice said "Stop." Oscar looked at Stephanie, anger clouding his face.

"How DARE you!" he snarled. "HOW DARE YOU do this to Rose!"

"Ooh, touchy about Little Miss over here?" asked Stephanie, her stiletto heels swinging an inch away from Rose's inert body. "Well isn't that interesting. Now now," she said quickly as he took a step forwards and the SKUL agents got ready to attack, "don't do anything you might regret later. For example, if you were to attack the agents here, guess what would happen?" she asked in a voice laced with genuine amusement.

"Don't you dare..." gasped Oscar as he saw the razor thin heel get closer to Rose's face.

"Don't dare do what, dear? _This?" _Stephanie's voice became hard and vicious and she slashed her heel downwards. Oscar yelled as another gash tore Rose's face and more blood gushed out. He sprang forwards, not aiming for the goons but for Rose, wanting to drag her away from the madwoman above her. But as soon as he moved the agents were onto him, punching him and grabbing his arms, twisting them into a lock behind his back. "Ooh, naughty, naughty," said Stephanie, the horrid amusement back in her voice. "You wouldn't want to cause Little Miss Bookworm over her any _more_ pain, would you, dear? Because one wrong move and my heel might just slip again, and that would be a mistake." Oscar kept struggling in the armlock, desperately trying to loosen the men's hold on him.

"You...get...OFF...her!" he shouted, hopelessly wrenching his arm.

"No, I don't think so," Stephanie said calmly, one hand fiddling with her hair. "And I can promise you, if you don't stop struggling things will get a lot worse for Little Miss over here." Oscar heard a dangerous note in her calm voice, and slowly stopped struggling. The sight of Rose, lying underneath a madwoman with blood trickling down her face, looking so small she could be a doll, tore at his heart. "Much better," Stephanie purred. "And now, unless you don't want to see your little girlfriend again, you will not resist when the men tie you up." Oscar didn't know what else he could do. The goons produced lengths of rope seemingly from nowhere, and proceeded to bind his hands and feet so tightly that the circulation was cut off as well as gagging him. "We _are _learning fast. You can't resist unless you want your girlfriend to suffer the consequences. Isn't it strange," she mused, jumping off the desk and walking over to where he lay bound on the floor, "how people will bully others in order to get their attention and maybe," she crooned, sitting elegantly on the floor, "to deny their feelings? Poor Rose - what did she have anything to do with all this? Shows what trouble a good brain and a bully with a crush and a secret can do." Oscar's mind was whirling. it sounded like Stephanie thought Rose was innocent - that she wasn't an MI9 agent. But that was impossible - why beat her up otherwise? "She looks so sweet and helpless there, doesn't she?" continued Stephanie, an elegant finger tracing down Oscar's jaw line however much he tried to shrink away or shake it off. "It must be so hard not to be able to help her. But you see, Oscar, I knew as soon as I saw you with Rose the first time you came down here that you cared for her more than you wanted to admit. A girl two years younger than you who was hated by everyone else? I can see why you wanted to hide your feelings for her. And as soon as I saw you on the surveillance letting the SWAT team in I knew you had been undercover, even though your age surprised me. I truly thought that we were the first to think of using teenagers. And I was in here with Rose, who had come down here to avoid you and Max for the day, I imagine, and she was terrified. And I knew that getting her out would be one of your main priorities. So I told the men to tie her up and gag her, but she would insist on struggling. Nothing serious of course - what can a 14-year-old with a broken leg do against highly trained agents? - but it was rather annoying. So they knocked her out. I promise you," she crooned, "that the first cut was a mistake. I wanted you to see how helpless she was, so I sat on the desk, and my heel slipped out of my shoe. Poor girl, she'll probably be scarred for a long time. And all because she was sweet and helpful. Poor Little Miss. She would have made a good agent too - but this operation will be shut down now, obviously."

It was an incredibly small hope, but it was there. Stephanie didn't suspect Rose of being an agent. But what good would that do when Rose was unconscious with a broken leg? Even if she woke up, what could she do?

"You do look despairing, Oscar. Never been on the losing side before? First time for everything. But now, I need to go and stop the fight out there. You will stay here like a good boy with Marcus. Little Miss will be coming with us. MI9 have always been very sentimental about innocents getting hurt. Rose will probably have a similar affect on them too." Stephanie was about to continue this monologue when there was a muffled groan from Rose's direction.

"Ow..." came a small voice, and Oscar could see Rose's eyes flicker open. "Ow. What happened?" she asked.

Stephanie walked over to her quickly. "So you're awake. Well, Rose, I'm afraid that you have come out bottom in this one. When you were showing me the fantastic lasers you made, an MI9 cavalry arrived led by a certain Oscar Wilde. It turns out, and this is going to be a shock, that Oscar works for MI9. A teenage spy! And I thought you were the first one. Anyway, he knew you were here and came charging in to rescue you - I have to tell you that he's a bit more fond of you than his exterior might show - and found that you were unconscious. Sorry you had to be used as bait, but it was the easiest way. Gag her," she instructed the men, who swiftly carried out this command. "Well, Oscar, I'm sure someone will be along to pick you up soon. And then you'll have to get used to your new life in a prison cell. You probably won't ever see Little Miss here again, so you've got one minute to say goodbye." She then tugged the gag out of his mouth, before walking over to the guards and began issuing orders.

Rose's eyebrows were nearly lost in her hair they were so high. Oscar knew he had to confirm that she was not suspected. "Rose, I'm sorry about the bullying. But I work for MI9, the Secret Service, and if I'd gotten close to you it could have put our mission in danger. I've been working for MI9 for a few years now, and I can say that as soon as I met you I knew that you would be of interest to SKUL, who are far bigger than this little operation. If you'd gone to a different school, you'd have been of interest to MI9. You're brilliant - smart, strong, you never let me or Max win. You just kept on finding more books to read, kept on reading them, never just gave in. I'm really sorry, Rose. I'll always remember you. If I get out of this, I'll make sure MI9 don't chase you for being involved with SKUL. It wasn't your fault."

At this point, Stephanie walked over and took in the scene. "Oh, but how touching this is. I might cry. Rose, you have a minute to answer and then I'm afraid you'll be unconscious again - we need to stop that battle." She then pulled off Rose's gag, before sitting back on the desk.

"MI9? Oscar, you're a spy?" asked Rose quietly, her voice laced with pain. "Well I can tell you one thing. If everyone in MI9 is like you, I'm glad SKUL asked me to join first. If they're all like you, MI9 are the criminals, not SKUL. You've hated me ever since Max told you that I was weird and invited you to sit with him. You've bullied me, made me do your homework, made me give you all my books. You don't remember your parents. Well the first time I ever spoke to anyone properly after mine died was the evening you came. That was the first time, Oscar. The first time after I lost the two people who meant everything to me. And then the next day you joined up with Max. Look where you've landed me! I've never done anything wrong. I'm just a girl who likes reading, who came here a few weeks after her parents died and was bullied from the word go. Oscar, I understand that you couldn't get close to me, but you didn't have to go so far the other way. SKUL have been the first people ever to accept me, to make me feel that I'm valuable and wanted. You only ever saw me as an object of derision. I'm sorry, Oscar, but I hate you." With that last sentence, tears began trickling down Rose's face, mixing with the drying blood.

"Rose, I'm truly sorry. Nothing I did was acceptable. I hope one day you'll forgive me, Rose." said Oscar sadly.

"Oh, I'm tearing up. That was so touching," said Stephanie in a sarcastic voice. "The bully confesses that he has feelings. Well, there are things to do. Gag the boy again. Rose, sorry from everyone at SKUL about this." Stephanie then punched Rose swiftly on the forehead, making her drop instantly back into unconsciousness. "Well, what are you lot waiting for? All systems go go go!" shouted Stephanie. One of the guards picked Rose up roughly, two more stood either side of Stephanie, while the last stayed behind with Oscar. The group moved off down the corridor, and Oscar couldn't help but let a single tear run down his face at his failure to help Rose.

**-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-**

Blane would have been done for if Daisy hadn't come to rescue him. As it was, he was up and fighting, disposing SKUL agent after SKUL agent, but there were always more. Just as he was beginning to tire, as clear voice rang out over the fight. "Stop." it commanded. All the SKUL agents instantly stopped fighting and made their way over to the tall, red-headed lady who had made the command. She was easily as tall as the massive guards, her black stiletto heels adding a good few inches to her height. All the MI9 agents were looking around confusedly, but the MI High team knew what had happened. This was Stephanie, the person in charge. She exuded an aura of power and authority, an air of you-really-don't-want-to-mess-with-me. The agents regrouped behind Stark. "Oh, this is funny, "said Stephanie, who seemed to genuinely amused by the scene. "You actually think you have a chance? Well, let me unravel that." she clicked her fingers, her red and black nail varnish flashing. Blane's breath caught in his throat. A SKUL agent had just stepped out from behind the others. He was carrying a small figure with long black hair, who was lying limp in his arms. It was Rosie Red. A growl tore its way out of Blane's throat. Oscar had been supposed to look after her. "This, in case you didn't know, is Rose Patel, who was recently recruited by us for her brains. Poor girl, I must say. I used her as bait to demobilize Oscar. He is quite fond of her, you see, despite the exterior. Now, Rose will be useful again. It is one of MI9's top priorities to protect civilians, and since Rose is not a full SKUL member yet, she counts as a civilian. If you don't all lay down your arms, Peter here will cut her throat. It's as simple as that. You have two minutes to discuss your course of action." Stephanie turned around and slid a hand into her handbag, extracting a long knife, which she handed to the man holding Rose. It was pressed to her throat, and beads of blood appeared. Whispers broke out among the MI9 agents.

"She doesn't know Rose is MI9!"

"Not that that helps us much."

"Agent Stark, what should we do? We can't just let her die."

"Everyone shut up!" ordered Stark. "Stupid kids, I knew Agent Cole would fail. And you!" he directed at Daisy, "You were meant to be helping him!"

"Leave Daisy alone!" shouted Blane.

"PLEASE!" Carrie's voice silenced everyone else in an instant. "Can we just decide how to save Rose!"

"Right, Agent Stewart. My suggested course of action is to attack with speed, grabbing Rose and getting her out. The head of MI9 said that Stephanie has no physical fighting skills, so I'll arrest her. Then the SKUL men will back down, the thing will be in the bag."

"It won't work!" said Daisy desperately. "The man's holding a knife to her throat right now! One wrong move and she'll be beyond saving!"

"It's a risk we're going to have to take, Agent Miller. There is no other course of action available." All the MI High agents began protesting. "There is nothing I can do about it!"

"Agent Stark is right," came a familiar voice from behind Blane. He turned to see that it was Frank. "We can't lay down arms. We can't just stand by and let Rose die. This is the only option."

"Glad for your support, Agent London. When I give the word. Three, two," But Stark was interrupted by a disturbance among the SKUL troops. Someone had raced down the corridor and taken out the man holding Rose, before grabbing her and sprinting towards the lift. Chaos erupted. Stephanie was shrieking into a communicator, and the battle between SKUL and SWAT was raging again. The MI High agents all ran to help Oscar with Rose, but when they got to the lift doors, the lift wouldn't go up. Stephanie had disabled it. Quickly deciding on a new plan, Oscar and Blane carried Rose over to one of the rooms off the long corridor. Daisy then stayed with her as the other agents ran to join the fight. Blane was surprised that Oscar didn't want to stay with Rose, but when Oscar saw his questioning glance he growled "That red head is going to pay and I'm going to be there every step of the way." There was no time for any more conversation as the agents started incapacitating any SKUL goon who looked their way.

The luck of MI9 had turned, and they were slowly but surely winning the fight. Oscar plunged his way through the crowd, not attacking but ploughing forwards, trying to get to Stephanie. Finally, he managed it. Her face when she saw him was a sight that Oscar would remember for a long, long time. She shrieked and tried to run, but finally her stiletto heels were a disadvantage instead of an advantage. Oscar easily caught her up, and immediately put her arm into a painful lock. She screamed in pain, tears running down her perfectly made up face. "Please! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she begged.

"Not a chance, you two-faced worm," snarled Oscar, shoving her towards the edge of the corridor. "Not a chance in hell." Then he tied up her arms and legs, before gagging and blindfolding her, as well as handcuffing her leg to the chair to be sure. He then ran back through the crowd towards the room Rose was in. By the time he had got there, the fight was over. All the SKUL agents were on the floor, either unconscious or in terrible pain, and MI9 hadn't lost any agents, although a few were sporting injuries such as broken noses.

"Where is Agent Gupta?" barked Stark, his face smug at the victory.

"In that room," indicated Oscar. At this point the lift doors suddenly opened and the head of MI9 ran in.

"Oh my goodness! I came as soon as I saw the incident with Agent Gupta. It looked bad, but I see that I wasn't needed after all." she gasped, evidently having run all the way.

"Everything's under control, ma'am. Stephanie is over there, unharmed as you ordered. Gupta is unconscious and will need medical attention, but besides that everything is fine," Stark reported, looking almost unbearably pleased with himself.

"Well done. Excellent work all round. Now I need a chat with Stephanie over there. Agent Cole, if you will accompany me. Stark, check on Agent Gupta and call an MI9 ambulance. If she is fit to be moved take her up to ground level. Cole, with me." the head of MI9 issued orders in her usual brisk and no-nonsense manner. Oscar followed her over to Stephanie, who was sitting hunched and despairing next to the chair she was cuffed to. Once they were standing next to her, Oscar was ordered to tie her to the chair so that she was sitting on it. Stephanie offered no resistance, allowing herself to be repositioned. Oscar then stood by the head of MI9's shoulder, an impeccable agent to the tee. She leaned forwards slowly, reaching out and removing first the blindfold and then the gag. Stephanie didn't move at all, she just stayed staring into space with the look of terrible misery on her face. "So, Miss Retsam - or would you prefer Miss Master? - we have you now."

"Yes," mumbled Stephanie. "You have me now."

"Wait a second!" Oscar interrupted. "_Miss Retsam? _But Rose said that was the false name of the person who kidnapped the President, who was really the granddaughter...no. no, you're not. Surely you're not..."

"The granddaughter of the Grand Master? Yes, I am. I'm the granddaughter of the most infamous criminal this century, I've been living like royalty since I was born - better than royalty, since I didn't have to deal with the press. But I'm not **the **granddaughter of the Grand Master. That was Leah. Always Leah. From the moment we started training together when I was three. She's three years older than me, and three years better than me at everything. _Everything. _Ever since it was clear that she would always be better than me, she was queen and I was princess. Not much difference, I suppose. But to me - all I've ever wanted is to make grandpa proud of me. After mama died he would have us come and talk to him every week. Sunday dinner, without fail. But I was always on the side - the Grand Master and Leah would talk, and I would contribute when I could. Which was never. And then Leah got caught, and I thought that maybe I would be able to take her old place. But it was obvious that I needed to prove myself. So when I had this idea, of training SKUL agents when they were teenagers, I immediately set about setting it up. It's been my project for four years, and it's been successful. I proved myself. But now you've caught me just like you caught Leah."

Oscar and the head of MI9 were both taken aback by this sudden outpouring of family history. This was not what either of them had expected from a master criminal. Nevertheless, letting it cloud their professional judgement would be a massive mistake. Stephanie would be taken back to MI9 Headquarters and questioned and imprisoned. No doubt about it. "Well, that was easier than I thought it would be," said the head of MI9. "Now that we've opened the floodgates, you will tell us everything that you have done to Agent Gupta that could casue lasting damage." Oscar silently thanked her in his head for asking this - if Rose had been done any lasting harm, another agent should probably take over his place right now.

"Agent Gupta?" sniffed Stephanie in her chair. "Who's Agent Gupta? You don't expect me to keep track of every injury caused in a fight?"

"Ma'am, Miss Retsam doesn't know Rose is an MI9 agent," whispered Oscar. "She believes that Rose is an innocent dragged into this."

"Ah, well that explains a lot. Well, Miss Retsam, you were mistaking in believing that Rose Patel had nothing to do with this. She is in fact a member of Agent Cole's team."

"Rose?" whispered Stephanie, "But she's so ... small and ... sweet and innocent ... how can someone like that be an agent fighting crime? She's only 14!"

"Well, she is highly successful. But this is besides the point. I want a detailed account of all the injuries Agent Gupta has, and I want it now."

"OK, so she's been knocked unconscious twice by a punch to the head. She has several relatively deep gashes on her face made with the heel of my shoe. She'll probably have a massive bruise above her eye, because one of the men _accidentally _hit her there. Apart from that, nothing that I can think of. Maybe a slight concussion, but nothing too serious."

"I believe the rest of our questions can wait until we are back at HQ. Cole, call Stark to escort Miss Retsam back and then you are welcome to stay with Gupta. We will be in contact this evening as to what to do next. Well done, Agent." Oscar sent a grin at her for the praise, before heading off to find Stark.

_**-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-**_

Once Oscar had found Stark, who had abandoned his post with Rose to call the ambulance, he went into the room. Carrie, Daisy and Blane were crowded around her small body, which was lying on a sofa. Blane was hugging Daisy as she cried quietly. Oscar silently moved forwards and pushed past them, sinking to his knees next to the sofa. He took one of Rose's hands, noticing that it fit in his perfectly, like it had been shaped for him. Carrie put her hand on his shoulder. "She'll be alright Oscar," she said. "Rosie will be fine."

"Yes," he replied, "she has to be." Then Agent Stark came in, saying that the ambulance was nearly there. Oscar was about to lift Rose up himself, but Stark shook his head and gestured for one of the men to do it. The size of the agent dwarfed Rose. "Can I come too?" he asked Stark, polite for the first time.

"I suppose you can all come," he said not unkindly. "Off we go." The agent with Rose led the way out, all the MI High agents following him. They saw a SWAT agent with the head of MI9 and Stephanie, untying her from the chair so that they could take her back to base. Stephanie heard footsteps, lifted her head and saw the procession carrying Rose to the lift. The second her hands were untied, one plunged to her belt and whipped out a sinister looking gadget. Without waiting for anything, she pointed it at Rose and fired. A beam of golden light connected the gadget to Rose for a split second, and then it was gone.

"That's what traitors get, Little Miss," hissed Stephanie as the MI9 agent gave a shout of surprise, knocked the gadget from her hands and cuffed them behind her back while crushing the gadget with his heel. "You didn't seriously believe me? Sob stories given by captured agents are true 1 time out of 10."

Oscar ran forwards, not thinking straight any more due to his all-consuming fury. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" he yelled so loudly they could probably hear it on ground level.

"Oh, nothing _much_," Stephanie laughed in an evil voice, "All I did was sap all the energy from her body. The gadget is meant to be used on a much lower setting to exhaust people in battle. When it's that high...well put it this way. You've got around 10 seconds to say goodbye to your precious teammate before you lose her forever."

"You're not serious," Oscar said, his voice dropping right back down to a deadly quiet. "You _haven't_ just killed Rose."

"You know, you're wasting your time," she said. Torn between beating her up and going to Rose, Oscar chose the latter and spun on his heel. She had been lowered to the floor by the agent, who had taken out his spypod and placed it over her heart. To his utter dismay, Oscar saw that Rose's heat was getting slower and slower, weaker and weaker.

"No," he whispered, all the team crowding around him, but he was oblivious to them, "No, Rosie Red, you have to hold on." He could vaguely hear Carrie and Daisy shouting 'Do something' to the agent, and Blane was holding Daisy to him. "Come on," he whispered brokenly, but it was no good. In the 10 seconds Stephanie had predicted, Rose's heartbeat reached 0.

Rose was dead.

Dead.

Not coming back.

Oscar couldn't process it, couldn't realise fully what had happened. He kept staring at the spypd, expecting her heart to start again. He was holding one of her hands in his - he checked her pulse automatically in case the spypod had malfunctioned. There was nothing to feel. He stood up and backed off a few steps, tears running down his face. "Rose," he whispered. "No."

"She should have stayed at HQ," came Blane's broken voice. "She 's not meant to be in the field."

"No," came Carrie's voice, sad but strong. "Rose always hated being told to stay behind because she was younger, or because it wasn't her speciality. We couldn't keep her safe forever - and it's...it's..."

"How she would have wanted to die," came Daisy's voice, muffled as she was pressing her face into Blane's jacket. "Helping her country. Saving the world."

Oscar couldn't believe that they were talking about Rose in the past tense. It couldn't be real. Carrie was kneeling next to her, holding her hand. Blane and Daisy were standing behind Carrie, tears running down Daisy's face. Oscar dropped back to his knees and took Rose's other hand. Suddenly, all their heads snapped up. The beep from the spypod had been interrupted. Hope flooded Oscar, and he grabbed the machine and placed it back over Rose's heart. Excruciatingly slowly, Rose's heart was fighting to start again. "Yes, come on," Oscar shouted, along with the team. Daisy had dropped to the ground and was sitting next to Rose's head, Blane looking down as though he couldn't believe it. "You can do it Rose," Oscar willed her to stay alive for him. Rose's heartbeat was picking up, until it was at 20bpm. There it stopped rising, and Rose started breathing weakly again. The MI High team couldn't believe it.

"Wow, she's a fighter, that little one," came a voice from behind Oscar. That voice would be the one he hated most for his whole life. "Not many people at all could stay alive for that long with no energy in their body." Oscar took several angry steps towards her, until he was standing right next to her.

"Permission?" he asked the head of MI9 through gritted teeth.

"Granted," she immediately answered, and Oscar drew back his fist and punched her as hard as he could on the forehead. Stephanie slumped, unconscious.

"Thank you, ma'am," said Oscar, before turning and walking quickly back to Rose's side.

The lift doors slid open, and Frank ran in to the base along with a team of MI9 paramedics. "What happened?" he asked, shocked at the tear tracks down all of their faces and Rose lying on the floor.

"Stephanie used a device that took all the energy out of Rose's body. Her heart stopped for nearly a minute. Frank, we thought she was dead," Carrie explained, her voice breaking at the last part. A group of paramedics were busy lifting Rose onto a stretcher, and one of them turned around.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," he muttered to Frank, "but if we don't act very fast she will be dead again. Her body had enough energy to keep her heart going for another half and hour, no more. We need to find a way of giving her more energy."

_I hope you all like this supersize chapter! Please review!_


	17. Chapter 17

"Oscar, its been three weeks. Don't you think it would be better if you let one of us take over for a day or two so that you could get a rest?"

"No." Oscar replied shortly, although he knew that Carrie was only trying to be nice. Rose had been in hospital three weeks and had only woken up once. Even then, she had only had enough energy to stay awake for a minute before falling back into the coma-like sleep. Frank and the MI9 team were working on modifying the Invigatron so that it could be used on Rose, but at the moment the energy is shot would be far too much for her. The doctors likened it to starvation: if someone hasn't eaten for a long time, their stomach shrinks until they can only eat a tiny amount of food - her body could now only manage a little bit of energy. They had to slowly increase this amount, not overdoing it or it might overload her system.

Since the scene at Penhallows, Oscar had not been back to the orphanage. Frank had mentioned to him that his cover story was that he was visiting a friend from his old orphanage who had been adopted, but Oscar didn't really care. His daily routine was now set in stone - he would get up at 7.00 in the small room the MI9 hospital let him borrow, have breakfast, go to the training centre for 2 hours to use the gym, shower and change, and be with Rose by 10.00. He then wouldn't leave her side until 9.00 at night, when the hospital staff threw him out. He didn't even leave to get meals - Frank or Lennie brought him take aways from the canteen. Oscar spent eleven hours a day next to Rose, only moving when he absolutely had to. Not even he could explain this behaviour to himself - the awful feeling of guilt at Rose's injury was always with him, weighing him down like a burden however much all the other people who visited Rose told him that there had been nothing he could have done to prevent it. Blane, Daisy and Carrie were back at Penhallows, although Carrie was set to be drawn out in a week. Like with the entrance, five students leaving the orphanage on the same day would seem incredibly suspicious. They all visited Rose as often as they could - about twice a week, and never at the same time - and they were all devastated at her condition. Surrounded by all the machines that were keeping her alive, Rose looked even more doll-like than ever. The head of MI9 have even visited twice, and had asked to be sent regular updates on Rose's condition.

The doctors had told Oscar that there was around a 60% chance that Rose could hear everything that was going on around her, even if it wasn't always consciously. So he spent hours and hours talking to her inert body, telling her anything and everything that came into his mind. Rose, if she could hear, now knew so many details about Oscar that he had never told anyone before that he occasionally almost hoped that she couldn't hear. Other times he just sat quietly, holding her hand, and others still he spent reading, or doing work, or anything that he wanted. He didn't really mind what he was doing, as long as he was with Rose when he was doing it. He would never forgive himself if she woke up and he wasn't there.

The doctors couldn't predict when her body decided that she had enough energy in her for it to be safe to wake her up from the coma. They weren't going to try to speed this moment up either - that could have potentially fatal consequences. The Invigatron was the only machine that could safely convey a large amount of energy into a person's body without causing system overload, and Frank was working on it, putting every other project aside to try to finish the adjustments.

"Oscar, please," said Carrie. "Rose isn't likely to wake up right now, and you've been sitting there weeks. Let me sit with her for today, you go and refresh your mind - get some fresh air, go for a run. It'll do you good."

"Thanks, Carrie, but no." Oscar replied adamantly.

"If you're sure," sighed Carrie, sinking into the chair next to Oscar's. "But you _have_ to stop blaming yourself. Rose would say the same thing if she were able to talk right now. I know she would, and you do, too. What happened was nobody's fault but Stephanie's, and she's currently paying for it in MI9 jail."

"Jail's too good for her," muttered Oscar darkly.

"Not saying I don't agree, but what can you do. Oscar, if Rose were to see you now, she would be shocked at you. The right way to deal with this is to do what Rose would want you to do, and that isn't sit by her bed all day, every day, for weeks. She'd want you to be outside, doing what you do best, fighting evil and showing everyone that you can still work under stress. MI9 would be so impressed if you returned to work with Rose still comatose. Quite honestly, I think that Rose can hear us, and if you can, Rose, I hope you agree with what I'm saying. You need to live life to the full, Oscar, seize the day. I know it's hard when you feel so guilty, but the only way of dealing with it is to keep going, to fight through. God forbid, but if Rose stays comatose for, say, another month, you will have been sitting here for two months when you could have been out there saving the world, to use Rose's phrase. Do you think..." But here Carrie abruptly stopped talking. The beeping of the heart monitor was getting faster and faster, and Carrie slammed her hand down on the 'call' button that alerted the doctors to a change in Rose's condition. Within seconds three doctors in long white coats rushed in, and began taking readings from all the machines. One then turned to the pair of teenage spies.

"What were you talking about when this started? Rose seems to suddenly be trying desperately to wake up, even though she doesn't really have the energy for it. Could this be in response to something you said?"

"Maybe," said Carrie quickly. "I was telling Oscar that Rose wouldn't want him to spend all of his time in here when there are missions to go on to save the world. Could this be dangerous, if she doesn't really have enough energy?"

"No, it is very unlikely to set her recovery back. She won't be awake for more than a few seconds, I should think, before her body shuts down again, so to speak. All we can do is wait to see what happens." Oscar hadn't moved from his chair, and now he reached out and took Rose's hand.

"Come on, Rose," he said quietly. "You can do it. Just a few seconds. I need to hear your voice again to know that you're still in there. Come on, come on." After a few seconds, to the amazement and excitement of all in the room, though everyone contained it very professionally, Rose's eyelids flickered open.

"Os..car," she mumbled, almost unintelligibly.

"I'm right here, Rosie," Oscar replied, squeezing her hand gently.

"Carrie...right. Not...your fault. Do what...Carrie says. Team...need you...more than...me, Os...car. Miss...you. Miss...Carrie and...everyone. Send..." Rose clearly had more she wanted to say - who wouldn't after three weeks of not talking - but at this point her body shut down again. Her eyelids drifted shut, her voice trailed off into nothing and her heart rate returned to normal.

"Well, there you have it, Oscar," Carrie said, clearly trying to regain some sense of normality to the surroundings that had just been violently disrupted. "Rose agrees with me. So will you let me take over for today?"

"She woke up," Oscar muttered as if he couldn't believe it. "She woke up." Then he seemed to shake himself out of it. "Yes, Carrie, I suppose you're right. Maybe…just for today. I'll go … to the park … or something. Thanks." Carrie looked very pleased with herself, and Oscar slowly stood up, releasing Rose's hand. "I'll be back tomorrow, Rosie," he said, before making his way to the door. Looking back only once, Oscar left the room.

An hour later, running through the park, Oscar's thoughts became clearer and clearer as though the fresh air was blowing away all the worry and stress from the past three weeks. In this calmer state of mind, Oscar saw the truth of Carrie's words – Rose didn't want him to put everything else on hold because she was in hospital, just as if he were in hospital he wouldn't want everyone to put their entire lives on hold just for him. Running through the cool air, Oscar decided that the next week he would return to the orphanage for the few weeks that would be necessary before he could be withdrawn from the mission.

Deciding that he would go and see Frank and ask how the Invigatron was coming on, Oscar altered his course to head towards St Hopes. Once he was there, it was a simple matter to evade all teachers and students on his way to the lift due to the fact that they were all in lessons. After he had scanned his thumb, entered the lift, pulled the mop and plummeted towards HQ, Oscar ran out into the underground spy centre that was his second home. He had almost forgotten, in his months at Penhallows, just how comfortable his spy gear was – while the SKUL clothes had been good, these were the best. Turning around the pillar that led to Frank's desk, which was always scattered with nuts and bolts, along with other materials only Rose and Frank knew the names of, Oscar saw Frank bent over his desk as normal, the Invigatron lying next to him. "Oscar! Good to see you! Is Rose alright?"

"Rose is fine. Frank, she basically woke up for a minute and told me to stop putting my life on hold for her. So, next week I'm ready to go back to Penhallows."

"Oscar, that's great. I'm so glad she's well enough to wake up for a minute – even if it was a strain for her, it does show some improvement. And hopefully this will too, once it's up and running," Frank enthused, patting the device next to him.

"Yeah, how's it going?" asked Oscar

"Really well, "said Frank excitedly. "It should be ready by the end of the week. I've recalibrated the neutron converter…" Oscar's attention switched off as Frank's explanation became technical – only Rose could understand him when he went off like this. Five minutes later, Frank seemed to be winding up his detailed explanation on the technology, and Oscar kicked his mind back into gear.

"Great, the end of the week," he said, repeating the only fact in the conversation that he'd understood properly.

"Yes," said Frank, an amused look on his face as though he knew Oscar hadn't understood a word. "And I'll inform Miss Moscow that your visit to your friends house went very well and you'll be back on Sunday afternoon."

"Great, thanks Frank."

"Not a problem. And Rose should be a lot better soon, hopefully." Oscar grinned, a weight off his heart, and left HQ.


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter 18.  
__**I don't own MI High, as usual.**_

Oscar returned to Penhallows the following Sunday. Entering the dining hall halfway through dinner, he was greeted by cheering led by Max's table, and a round of applause. In a few months, he had become easily the most generally liked person at the orphanage, even when he was a bully in plain sight - people wanted him to like them. Treating them all to his usual easygoing and careless smile, Oscar sank into his normal seat next to Max at the head of the central table. "Oscar mate! Haven't seen you in ages? Where've you been?" asked Max.

"Friend from my old place invited me to stay for a few weeks with his new foster family," replied Oscar, beginning to eat.

"Nice?" Max said, also turning back to his food.

"Yeah, they were great," Oscar said. "Let me stay off school, didn't mind when we were back really late, we were free as birds."

"Sounds fun," mumbled Max through a mouthful of food. Oscar made an agreeing sound, and the conversation was pretty much terminated as the teenage boys turned back to the food in front of them.

Oscar quickly fell back into his old routine at Penhallows. Lessons were boring, food was mediocre, gang never did anything interesting. On the Friday, though, Blane managed to pass him a note in the corridors. 'Invigatron ready', it said, 'meet Frank and team 6.00 back gate'. At 5.45 pm, Oscar was already standing by the gate, staring impatiently up and down the road. By ten to, he had been joined by Blane, Daisy and Carrie, all also looking tense and nervous. And at six o'clock precisely, a shabby silver car pulled up around the corner, with Lennie obvious behind the wheel. The team hurried to the car and piled in, Daisy in the passenger seat and Oscar, Carrie and Blane squished up in the back seat. Daisy shot them a smirk as she reached for her seatbelt. "Comfy?" she laughed. Blane growled. "OK, OK, I'm sorry," she said in mock-surrender, making a puppy dog face at her boyfriend. Blane laughed.

"Forgiven," was all he said, before Lennie slammed his foot down on the accelerator and they shot off to the hospital.

The team was there five minutes later. Oscar was first out of the car, his feet hitting the ground already running as he streaked towards the front door. He heard shouts of 'Wait up," and 'Slow down, Oscar' coming from the others, but all that was on his mind was getting to Rose and making her better. Flashing his MI9 pass at the scanner, he waited impatiently for the detector to state that he wasn't carrying any weapons before racing down the familiar corridors towards Rose's room.

Slowing down to a walk at the last corridor, Oscar saw Frank in the doctor's office, his arms cradling the Invigatron. Oscar knocked twice on the door before pushing into the room. "Ah, Oscar. Not surprised that you're the first here, for some reason," said the head doctor with a friendly smile, which Oscar returned. All the medical staff had also noticed that he was taking a long time off missions because his teammate was injured.

"The others are right behind me," he said, and as if to prove him right there was another knock on the door, before Daisy, Blane, Carrie and Lennie all came in too. They all looked expectantly at the doctor, who chuckled at their eager expressions and led the way into Rose's room. She hadn't changed since Oscar saw her two days ago - not really a surprise, but somehow he had been expecting her to have changed - and was still lying immobile, dwarfed by the machines keeping her alive. "You'll be better soon, Rosie," Oscar said, "Frank's got the Invigatron working."

The doctor was bustling about, taking readings and moving Rose gently so that she was in a position where if she woke up suddenly she couldn't hurt herself or any of the machinery surrounding her. After a few minutes, he stood up straight, took several steps back, and announced "All ready, Agent." Frank walked forwards slowly, aiming the Invigatron at Rose's heart. It looked so terribly wrong to Oscar - if you didn't know what the Invigatron did, it would be easy to mistake the scene for Frank being about to kill Rose, not save her - but at the same time, it was their only hope.

Frank fired the gun.

The stream of blue energy that came out was not the same as the spiky, almost glittery substance that the Invigatron had used to fire. Instead, it was more like a gas - while it had a distinct stream and path, it swirled and meandered its way to Rose's heart. When the first tendrils connected with Rose's body, everyone on the team took a deep breath. Daisy's hands were covering her mouth, Carrie's were clutched into tight balls by her sides and Blane had his arms knotted so tightly that it seemed unlikely he would be able to untwist them for years. Oscar could hardly imagine what he looked like. Nothing visibly changed when the gas first touched her, although a trained ear such as the doctors could hear that the heartbeat on the monitor accelerated slightly. As the stream of gas continued to disappear into Rose's body, this acceleration continued, and the doctor hurried forwards to read the machines. Frank kept on shooting more and more of the gas at Rose, his face a tight mask of anxiety. Her heartbeat continued to climb and climb, until it was at 50bpm, Rose's normal resting heart rate. Then, quite suddenly, she sighed, a small and quiet sound that caused the team to send each other hopeful glances. Her breathing became more pronounced, and it was obvious that she was relying less and less on the oxygen machine every second. Suddenly, Daisy let out a very soft scream of surprise. "Her hand!" she gasped, pointing at the hand that was lying free on the bed covers. Everyone's eyes flew to it, and they soon saw what Daisy had been talking about. Every few seconds, it twitched, which was the first proper movement Rose had shown since she was injured. Oscar's eyes moved hopefully back up to Rose's face, which was surrounded by a tangle of hair. The doctor had removed the tubes from her nose once he was sure that she was breathing steadily, and now she looked as though she could be sleeping if it wasn't for the continuous blue gas streaming into her heart. Walking slowly forwards, Oscar reached for her hand and held it with both his own. "Come on now, Rosie Red," he said. "Wake up now."

As if she had heard him, Rose's eyelids flickered open.

"Oscar?" she mumbled, confusion in her voice as her eyes moved slowly around the room. "Where...where am I? Where's Stephanie?" Talking was clearly causing her a lot of effort, so Oscar placed a finger gently on his mouth, trying to suppress the tears that were welling in his eyes at his relief that the Invigatron had worked.

"Shhh, Rose," he said quietly, blocking out the squeals from Daisy and Carrie behind him. "No talking. You're not strong enough yet." A small smile tugged on the edges of her mouth. Oscar was so relived to see that familiar little smile after weeks of worry that his mouth mimicked hers and spread into a grin. "You're safe," he said reassuringly.

"You...worry too much," she complained quietly. "'M fine." Then her eyes slid behind him. "Carrie...Daisy...Blane...you're here too."

"No, we had better things to do than be there when you first woke up after three weeks out of commission, Rosie Red," joked Blane, walking forwards and standing next to Oscar, before he reached down and gently ruffled the hair surrounding her face. "Silly Rose, of course we're all here."

"I think that's enough for now," said Frank, stopping the flow of energy. "Can't be too careful with a device like that. Glad you're back, Rose."

"Hey Frank," she replied, her eyes slipping to his. "How're you?"

"Never mind that, how do you feel?" Frank asked, concern in his voice. The doctor was right by his shoulder, hovering with a medical notepad.

"I feel fine, Frank. Whatever you did to the Invigatron - and I'm guessing you recalibrated the neutron converter and stabilised the electron flow - worked." Rose paused here, trying to gather up the energy to keep going. "Still not got all my energy back, but since I'm awake and talking I suppose we could call it a success."

"Rose, why are you always so focused on machines? Evidently it worked, but that's not what matters right now. What matters is that you feel better. Tomorrow we'll use the Invigatron again, and then - Dr Shoults, how long do you think she will have to stay in hospital?"

"A week," said the head doctor. "A week at the least."

"That OK, Rose?" asked Oscar, his voice gentle and caring. "So you'll be out of here in a week, and out of the mission in about three weeks after that, right Frank?" But as soon as Oscar said 'out of the mission about three weeks after that', it was as though shutters had closed behind Rose's eyes. The small smile became rather forced-looking, and the contented expression on her face vanished. Wondering what could be wrong, Oscar squeezed her hand, and immediately the happiness returned to her face. Convincing himself that he must have imagined it, Oscar shook his head slightly and sat down in the chair next to Rose as Dr Shoults walked around, removing or weakening the effects of all the machines as Rose now had enough energy to keep herself alive. Daisy sat in the other chair, and sharing an exasperated glance, Carrie and Blane perched on either side of Rose's bed. After a few minutes, the adults left, meaning that the team were on their own together. "You comfy there, Rosie?" asked Oscar, gently smoothing some of the hair back off her face.

"Mmmhmm" she replied, evidently still tired.

"How much do you remember?" asked Daisy, bouncing full of energy as normal.

"Remember Stephanie - tied me up, knocked me out. Then I woke up, Oscar was there tied up and he said Stephanie didn't know I was MI9. Remember she said something about saying goodbye - remember she said sorry because I wasn't involved - then I don't remember anything until a little while ago when I heard people talking and I thought I was dreaming. They were doctors saying 'It's been 2 weeks." Since then I've been able to hear everything."

"It must drive you mad, being able to hear what people are saying but now answer them," mused Carrie, who was renowned for her love of chatting - to the girls at school, to the agents when they were on a mission, even to the people they were fighting.

"Mmmm" mumbled Rose, who clearly wanted to go back to sleep. Reluctant though he was to leave her, Oscar squeezed her hand again, before letting it fall onto the bed.

"We'll let you get some sleep now, Rosie," he said. "As long as you promise to wake up. I'll be here to see you really soon, OK?"

"OK Oscar," came the muffled response. Oscar gestured with his head to the team, and they all hurriedly said goodbye before heading for the door. Oscar was last to leave, and just before he did, he turned his head to look at Rose one last time.

She was already asleep.


	19. Chapter 19

_Chapter 19!  
__**I don't own MI High.**_

Finally, a week later, Rose was allowed out of hospital. The Invigatron had been a massive success, even curing her broken leg, and she had only needed to stay in hospital for the week because they wanted to take tests to see how her body had reacted, and if it was a stable reaction. She had found this week incredibly boring, and spent it either talking with whoever was visiting the hospital, drawing designs for complex machines and gadgets for MI9 which she then sent to their Headquarters, reading the thick books that she had asked Frank to bring to the hospital for her or sleeping. The day she was let out she returned to Penhallows in the evening, after spending the day talking to the technical agents at MI9 about the designs she had sent through. Agent Rose Gupta was a very different person to orphan Rose Patel, who was different again from Rose Gupta. Three different people in one body. It was a feeling that all the agents had after such a long mission.

Rose arrived at Penhallows in the middle of dinner. Walking into the dining hall, silence fell just as it had when Oscar came back. But this time there was no outbreak of cheering and clapping, and she wasn't invited to sit at anyone's table. Instead, the whole hall just stared at her for a few minutes. The scene was eerily similar to the one when she had returned from her week at SKUL. The team had decided that it was best if Rose eased out of her friendship with Carrie, Daisy and their group - it would make her disappearance easier. Blushing, Rose quickly collected her food and made her way over to her old corner table. Once she had sat down, chatter broke out again as if a plug had been pulled out. Rose grinned silently to herself. She had built another character for herself very effectively in her months here.

Blane was pulled out of the orphanage at the end of that week. He left quietly in the middle of the day, and only really had to say goodbye to Miranda. She waved him off at the front gate as he was driven away in the same shabby car he arrived in, her normally emotionless facade cracking slightly as she watched her only proper friend in ages go away. Blane was really upset that he would have to break the promise he had made to write to her. It was MI9 policy that all contact with people met on missions had to be broken off at the end of said mission, but nevertheless he felt sorry for the girl who had made her way through life fighting off anyone who came near her and only opened up once she met her equal. He had only told her that he was being moved to a different orphanage, and due to his generally taciturn cover he hadn't needed to explain further.

Daisy went next, a two weeks after Blane. Her cover for the departure was much more far-fetched, but it didn't matter - Miss Moscow would believe the world was triangular if Lady Daisy Meredith told her it was. She said that it turned out that she was closely enough related to a duke that he had agreed to adopt her. Miss Moscow went into quite a flutter when she found out that one of her charges was going to live in a Duke's house as his daughter, which was a sight to see - the formidable lady was always strictly practical and severe. When she found out that Daisy's father's will had allowed for a considerable sum of money to go to the orphanage in the event of a relative emerging, any doubts she had about the reliability of the story vanished suddenly. Great fanfare accompanied Daisy's departure, and she evidently was enjoying playing her part. Dressed in a lovely outfit of black leggings with fake diamonds up the sides, a flowing purple tunic-top, a black silk Alice band and purple boots, she graciously thanked Miss Moscow for the time she had spent at the orphanage and then said a short goodbye to all the students. She and Carrie also staged quite an emotional goodbye scene, in which they promised to keep in touch and Daisy said that she would invite Carrie to come and stay sometimes. The beautiful Rolls-Royce that took her away was chauffeured by none other than Chief Agent Stark, who was looking very evidently annoyed at the role he was called on to play as one of Daisy's underlings. She quite enjoyed bossing him about a bit, just to pay him back a little.

By this time, life at Penhallows had reverted to normal again, with only one big difference. Instead of being bullied, Rose was now simply ignored by everyone except the teachers. Max and Oscar left her pretty much alone, only directing one or two snide comments at her. This, as far as she was concerned, was a vast improvement. Oscar was overwhelmingly relieved, too, that he could stop playing the bully to Rose, although obviously they could not become friends. The time left on the mission was decreasing rapidly - the thought that now there was nothing to do except wait could have made the time drag but instead it did quite the reverse. Before they knew it, Carrie was leaving too.

She left on with nearly as much ceremony as Daisy, although unfortunately didn't have the luck of having Stark as a chauffeur. Early on a Thursday morning, after breakfast, she said goodbye to everyone in the dining hall. All the little girls who had fallen in love with her were close to tears, and she also found it hard to say goodbye to Miranda, who was upset that she was losing both of the friends she had made. Carrie promised to write, feeling very sorry that neither she or Blane would. Then she stepped out onto the road, her blue dress swishing out of sight. Privately Rose though that this was another reason the little girls were so upset - many of them never really saw pretty things, and had loved Daisy and Carrie's clothes. Sometimes they had been allowed to dress up in the dresses, which had increased Daisy and Carrie's popularity with them sevenfold.

Finally, it was just Oscar and Rose left. They had to wait a little longer than the others due to their three week absence - it would seem a little odd if they disappeared straight after that. They still sent messages to HQ every day, even though it wasn't sttrictly necessary any more now that the mission was over. Rose would be leaving first of the two, as Oscar was not ready to let her stay on her own again, and she would be going in another three weeks. She was spending her evenings creating a 'diary' of the time she had been at the 'University of Toronto' for the benefit of her parents, documenting all the purely fictional experiences she had had there. Oscar was pretending to keep up correspondance with the boy he had supposedly visited while Rose was in hospital - his cover for leaving was that at first he was just visiting, but a week after he left a letter would be sent to Miss Moscow and another to Max saying that some friends of the boy had offered to foster him until he was old enough for University. The set up for the final disappearance of Oscar Wilde and Rose Patel was taking shape.


	20. Chapter 20

_The story's coming to a close although we're not there yet! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed - lets try and get 40 before the end?  
__**I don't own MI High.**_

* * *

It was a dreary, bleak, boring Tuesday when Rose left. Oscar had to say goodbye to her that morning, as she was leaving very quietly and he was supposed to hate her. After the school day, in which Rose stayed behind in each lesson for around 5 minutes to say goodbye to the teachers, he saw her make her way very inconspicuously to the front gate instead of going down to dinner with everybody else, carrying the battered suitcase with all the possessions she had had for the duration of the mission. Then he had to turn and go into dinner with the rest of the gang. Only two more weeks, he told himself.

That dinner, Oscar tried to keep up the conversation like normal but it was harder somehow when he knew that he was all alone in Penhallows. Even Max noticed that something was off in his behaviour, asking him what was wrong. Oscar replied that he'd had a letter from Tom - the boy he supposedly stayed with - and Max left it at that. About half way through dinner, though, he looked over to the other side of the dining hall and saw that the small corner table was empty. "Hey, Oscar. Know where shrimp is? Her table's empty." Oscar quickly thought how it might be best to deliver the news.

"Yeah, I do, actually," he said, stalling for time a bit until he decided on a plan of action. "She said this morning that she was ... wait for it ... that she was leaving." A dead silence fell on the table.

"Leaving?" repeated Max in a disbelieving voice. "Can't be. She doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"Well, that's what she told me," Oscar said, "and I can tell you I wasn't about to stop her. Finally I get a room to myself, without her in it the whole time."

"Really?" asked Max, evidently having trouble processing the fact that Rose was gone. "Well, that's cool. Guess I don't have to worry about her and her brain any more - someone else's problem."

"You OK, mate? You seem a bit down about this - I thought you'd be pleased," Oscar said, confused as to the mixed reaction Max was giving.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But this means that I have to do my own homework again." Max said in a devastated voice. Oscar had to stop himself from bursting out laughing. That was really what was getting Max all upset?

"Aw, come on mate. Think about it this way - nobody did your homework before she came. Now that she's gone, things are back to how they used to be. Think of it as a benefit you had for a few months. My matron at my old place was always saying this annoying quote - something like 'don't frown because it's over, smile because it happened.'"

"Yeah," Max replied, clearly pondering Oscar's words in his head. "Yeah. Cool." Oscar was trying to commit every moment of this to memory, because the look on Max's face and the disappointment that he'd actually have to do his own homework was hilarious.

* * *

And so the next two weeks passed. Quietly, uneventfully, almost boringly. Oscar announced that he'd been invited to go and stay another week with his friend Tom to the gang a week before his departure. Max was disappointed that he'd be losing his second-in-command for another week, but was gracious enough to say that he hoped Oscar enjoyed himself. In reality, Oscar couldn't wait to be rid of the domineering, bullying boy, but he had to play along and pretend that he'd be back after a week, even though the letters declaring otherwise were already ready and at HQ.

On Oscar's last day, almost every single person in the orphanage came to say goodbye to him, even though he was only meant to be going for a week. He was accompanied to the front gate by a group of 10 people, Max and Connor significant among these. He waved goodbye, well aware of the fact that he would never see them again, before finally turning his back on Penhallow Orphanage. An hour later, Frank pulled the car into the St Hopes car park. Oscar quickly pulled all of his bags out of the back before making his way down to HQ - again it was in the middle of lessons, so he didn't have to make any excuses. Once he was in the familiar room, he put his bags into the corner and sat down at the computer, quickly scanning the letter Frank had produced to send to Max announcing his permanent moving. "Looks good, Frank," he said once he had finished it. "It's good to be back properly."

"I can understand that," said Lennie, moving out of the gadget inventing room. "I remember when Chuckers and I went on our first deep cover mission ..."

"Yes, thank you, Lennie," Frank quickly interrupted. He had heard enough of Lennie's long-winded stories to know that it was best to stop them quickly. "It's good that we're all finally out. But there is one sad part of this - the end of the mission means that Daisy and Blane will be leaving again. They have to go back to Unit Alpha - the world needs young spies like you to be trained."

"I knew this was coming," Oscar said. "I'm sure Carrie and I will get through it, but Rosie will be devastated."

"I know," said Lennie, rejoining the conversation. "I hope she doesn't take it too hard. She was so pleased to see them again, but she can't have expected that they'd be able to stay."

"When will they be leaving?" Oscar asked.

"Next week," Frank replied. "It would be a good idea if you would try and prepare Rose for their departure.

"I'll do my best."


	21. Chapter 21

_In answer to several PMs, yes, the end is in sight, but there are several more things to happen first. I'm planning for 2-4 more chapters.  
__**I don't own MI High.**_

* * *

Oscar was worried. About Rose. Not just about how she would deal with Daisy and Blane leaving. He was worried about the unnecessarily early mornings, the withdrawal whenever families or home was mentioned, the plaintive way in which she had said that she would miss being on a mission and leading a different life before heading into SKUL HQ. He was especially worried about the reaction he had had when he had asked her when bullying her if she had ever met her parents or if she spent the whole time reading.

These worries had been building up, and by the time Oscar got back from Penhallows he knew that he couldn't keep them to himself any more. And as always when he needed someone to confide in who wasn't in his team, he turned to Frank. Frank, who had trusted him with the extra responsibility of the hairband. Frank, who had told Carrie that she contained the only thing that could counteract the despair bomb - hope. Frank, who trusted Rose's intelligence implicitly, never questioning her conclusions. Frank, who had always stood behind the team, even lying when under MI9 arrest to protect them. And Frank, too, had been worried.

Together, they decided that they needed to do something to dispel their feelings that something was wrong. At first, they could think of nothing that Rose wouldn't notice; after all, she was as highly trained as Oscar and even had a bit more experience in the field. Then Frank had an inspiration. He upgraded the pencil communicators so that they could pick up noises from a much greater distance - enough distance to cover a house the approximate size of Rose's. It was probably just them worrying too much, they both thought, but it would be good to quell the small voice that suggested something was wrong. Once the pencil was inside Rose's house, they would be able to hear everything that was going on. If Rose had the unhappy family life Oscar was beginning to suspect, they would know.

Two days after Oscar got back was the first day that the plan could be put into action. Oscar stayed behind after school down in HQ with Frank, the connection with Rose's pencil communicator turned on. They could hear her walking down the streets, away from the busy road St Hopes was on and into the warren of much quieter residential streets that she lived on. They heard her unlock the door with her keys, push it open and enter the house. They heard the faint barking of a dog and Rose's quiet laugh as she moved towards the sound, before there was the click of another door and the barking got a lot louder. "Cammie! Cammie! Here girl!" came Rose's voice, and there was a scratching sound as the dog moved towards Rose. The sudden banging and static-y sound showed that the rucksack had been dropped onto the floor. "There's a good girl," Rose cooed, and Cammie yapped contentedly.

"I didn't know Rose had a dog," Oscar commented, looking up from the Biology homework he had been doing. He was very good at multi tasking - half his attention was on the homework and half was on the sounds from Rose's house.

"Neither did I," replied Frank, who was working on the official report of the Penhallows Mission. After this short and inconsequential discourse, they both turned back to what they were doing before.

Rose, with Cammie in tow, clearly picked up her rucksack and headed up the stairs. It didn't seem as though anyone else was in the house with her. She entered a room - probably her bedroom - and then there was a lot of rustling and banging as she pulled things out of her bag. a few thuds as she probably set her books down on the desk, and she started to do her homework.

Half an hour later, nothing had really happened. Rose had finished her homework, there was still nobody else in the house, and she was playing with Cammie. "Sorry Cam," Rose said suddenly. "Gotta get back to work. Dad'll be home soon." Oscar looked up, slightly puzzled - she had clearly stated that her homework was finished a few minutes ago. But then a frustrated sound came from the communicator. "Cam, do you know where Dad's put my books? I can't find them anywhere." Rose walked out of the room, and Frank leaned forwards to turn the sensitivity up so that they could hear her moving down the stairs and into another room. She rummaged around for a bit, before announcing to the dog "Found them!" and jogging back up to her room and sitting down again. "So..." she sighed, "Here we go." Still wondering what Rose was studying, Oscar turned back to his homework - it took him a lot longer than it took Rose and he was 70% sure that Rose was just over-studying for a test again. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

After another 15 minutes, in which Oscar finally finished his homework and picked up a German novel, there was the sound of the front door opening again. Oscar and Frank looked up simultaneously. "Rose?" a voice called from the hallway.

"Coming Dad!" the girl replied, shutting her book and pushing back the chair, before leaving the room and moving downstairs. "How was your day?" she asked as she reached the hallway.

"Fine, yours?" came the brusque reply. Without waiting for a reply, Mr Gupta steamed on. "Your last essay mark came through."

There was a pronounced silence, broken only by the scratching noise of Cammie's paws on the floor as she jumped downstairs after her owner.

"It's not nearly good enough."

The silence from Rose stretched out, unbroken.

"A. Your last essay got an A. How many times do I have to tell you that I will accept nothing but perfection from you? _How many!?"_ Oscar and Frank looked over the desk at each other, expressions grim. It seemingly wasn't nothing, after all.

"Sorry," came the small reply.

"Sorry! You think _sorry _covers it? May I remind you who is paying for this? Who is giving you such a good chance in life? _Who is supporting your entire existence?" _Mr Gupta's voice had become dangerously quiet, a vicious edge cutting his words. "Get to your room." Immediately there was the sound of three pairs of feet running up the stairs - Rose and Cammie. The door hit the wall and slammed shut again, before there was the sound of a stifled sob. Oscar was having to force himself to remain in his seat and not sprint out of HQ to Rose's house, where he and Carrie had been once before.

The stifled sobs and gasps continued from the tracking device. There was a soft thumping noise, followed by a sniffing sound, by which Oscar deduced that Cammie had jumped up onto Rose's bed. "Oh Cammie," came a small voice, "I don't know if I can do this." The muffled crying continued.

After a more seconds, Rose calmed down and stood up. Cammie also jumped down off the bed. Oscar wondered why Rose had never mentioned that she had a dog before - but then, she never really mentioned home at all. A scraping sound indicated that Rose was sitting down at the desk again, followed by quiet thuds that were instantly familiar as heavy books falling open. Rustling of some paper, the faint pop of a pen lid and then the scratching of a pen.

Frank looked over at Oscar. "We can't make a complaint or anything merely because her father is pushy about grades. We need more. You're very welcome to stay here the night if you want to see if anything else turns up..." Oscar accepted thankfully and texted his foster-father about the arrangement. One of the best things about having an agent for a father was that he never needed to make up excuses to explain his absence - it was just accepted as part of the job. Oscar dumped his schoolbag in one of the residential rooms off of the main HQ - the underground base was a lot larger than it looked at first glance, and could accomodate up to 20 people at any one time. The bags of clothes that he had worn as Oscar Wilde were still at HQ, so he pulled what he would need out of there and returned to the main HQ.

It was around 7.30pm when anything more of interest happened on the other end of the pencil communicator. Oscar was sitting by one of the computers playing an online game and Frank was tinkering on one of his inventions when they heard the door to Rose's room open and heavy footfalls move in. The gentle scratching of the pen continued. Oscar knew how much Rose could enter her own world when she was reading or working - she probably hadn't even heard the door opening. "Rose." Mr Gupta announced his presence, and the pen immediately ceased moving across the paper. "We need to talk." Although he seemed a little calmer, there was still a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Yes, Dad," Rose replied quietly, pushing her desk chair back and moving across the room to her bed, where she sat down.

"You cannot hope to pass your exams as highly as I expect you to when you are getting these _dreadful _results. These exams are among the hardest on the planet, and you know full well that I accept** nothing **less than 100%. If you pass these even with 99.5% you are taking them again, _do you understand me?_"_  
_

"Yes, Dad," Rose replied. Oscar could almost see her staring at her hands, scared to raise her eyes a few centimeters.

"Do you _want_ to have to take them again?"

"No, Dad."

"Did you learn _anything _at the University of Toronto?"

"Yes, Dad."

"Do you think that you will pass with 100% with the marks you are currently getting?"

"No, Dad."

"_So are you going to do something about it?" _

"Yes, Dad." Rose sounded like she was about to cry again.

"Do I need to remind you how serious I am when I say that you will be in ** big **trouble if you get less than 100%?"

"No, Dad." Rose's voice might have taken on a slightly frightened tone, or it might have been Oscar's imagination working overtime.

"You haven't forgotten Physics degree?" Oscar looked over at Frank quickly, to see the movement mirrored in the older man. Neither of them had known Rose had taken a Physics degree, although they had both known that she definitely was up to the standard.

"No, Dad." The frightened sound was becoming slightly more pronounced.

"Good. Well you'd better get back to work then, hadn't you?"

"Yes, Dad."

There was a creaking as Mr Gupta stood up and his heavy footfalls showed that he was moving out of the room.

"Well, that's that, Cammie," Rose said quietly once the door had swung shut behind her father. "Wasn't too bad, was it?" A sigh. "Only three more months before these beastly exams are over, Cam. Then...oh, who am I kidding. Then he'll just find some even harder exams, or make me take these ones in a million different subjects. Sometimes I wonder, Cam, what I'll do when other kids are off to Uni. Dad won't let me go - waste of three years, he says - but not many people will employ someone who's never been to Uni. No-one in the jobs I might want to do, anyway. Maybe I'll just run away and join MI9 permanently. That would be nice. Of course you'd come with me, don't look at me with that expression. I'd never leave you behind." Rose's voice had taken on a loving tone, as if she was talking to a favourite baby sister.

"What exams do you think she's taking?" Oscar asked.

"No idea. At first I'd have said degrees, but clearly she's done those already. Really I have no idea."

* * *

The communicator was pretty much silent for the rest of the evening. Rose didn't go down to get any dinner or to say goodnight to her dad, instead going to bed with Cammie curled up next to her from what the two spies could deduce. Then at 3.00 in the morning Rose got up and got dressed, before working until 5.00, when she picked up her rucksack, slipped quietly downstairs, grabbed some food from the kitchen and picked up a note that had been left on the fridge. She didn't read it aloud, however, so they had no way of knowing what it said. She said goodbye to Cammie and left the house, and half an hour later the school CCTV showed her turning up and going into the library.

Oscar and Frank deliberated on the best course of action. They didn't want to reveal that they'd intruded on Rose's privacy by spying on her, but at the same time they did think that this was the sort of thing that they needed to talk to Rose about. Eventually, Frank decided to call her down to HQ. He pressed the button that started the buzzers on the pencil communicators, and Oscar saw the shock and incredulity when she saw the red flashing light at a time when most people were still in bed. Nevertheless, true to her training she dutifully made her way to the Caretakers Store Cupboard and pulled the lever, arriving in HQ seconds later to see Frank standing halfway between the lift and the computers and Oscar sitting sheepishly in one of the chairs.

"Oscar?" she said incredulously, "what on earth are you doing her...oh. you've been spying on me. Haven't you?" Frank quickly intervened.

"Now Rose, please don't be upset but Oscar had become a bit worried about you on the mission and when he told me about it I thought that it would be best if we checked up on it. You can't blame us for worrying." Oscar had expected Rose to be angry about this invasion of her privacy, but instead she looked as though a weight had been lifted off her back.

"I don't blame you," she confirmed, walking forwards and taking the seat next to Oscar, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I would have thought it was the right thing to do if it had been one of my friends." Oscar's relief that she was not going to hate him forever was overwhelming. "I guess you called me down because you have some questions?"

"If you want to talk about it, Rosie," Oscar said, putting his arm around her and pulling her a bit closer. "A problem shared can be a problem halved."

"OK," came the reply. "But please, don't tell Carrie and Daisy and Blane. They'd worry so much."

"Rosie, maybe it's about time someone started worrying. How long has this been going on for?"

* * *

_Now that I've updated both my stories today, I'm afraid there won't be any more chapters until at least Wednesday. Why? Because this weekend's my birthday! So I won't have any time to write. Sorry!  
Please please please review!_


	22. Chapter 22

Next_ chapter is here! Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read and review my stories. I hope you enjoy!  
__**I don't own MI High.**_

* * *

"How long has what been going on for?" Rose asked. "These exams? Well I've been working for them for a year now..."

"Not _these_ exams, Rose," Frank broke in. "Just exams. How long have you been taking exams out of school and MI9 training?"

Rose looked confused. "Well...as long as I can remember. I've always been working towards something, Dad says that you achieve much more if you have a goal to work towards."

Frank's voice was dangerously calm. "What exams have you been taking recently?"

"MI9 Physics Level 10."

Frank sat down quickly. "Level 10." he repeated.

"Yes," Rose confirmed, looking slightly confused at the dramatic reaction.

"Anyone want to tell me what this exam is?" Oscar asked, annoyed at being left out of the loop.

"MI9 sets tests for their scientists. They're set in levels. They're meant to challenge. Normal standard for the scientists who work for MI9 is Level 7. Only ten people have ever successfully attempted Level 10. But Rose, how on earth are you going to take it? Where will you get the paper from? It's very classified, top protection."

Rose looked embarrassed. "Dad told me to hack into MI9 and get it," she said quietly.

Frank looked astounded. "You managed to hack into MI9 classified documents."

"Dad told me to do it," Rose verified. The way she said it seemed slightly strange to Oscar. As though she would be able to do anything if her Dad told her to. Dad told me to hack into MI9, so I did. No question of it being tremendously hard, or highly illegal, or anything like that. Her dad had told her to. If her dad told her to climb Everest wearing only a swimsuit she'd attempt it without question simply because her dad had told her to, was the impression Oscar got.

"That's not meant to be possible," Frank said, showing that his thoughts were along the same lines as Oscar's. Rose shrugged, her sentiment clear - she wasn't asking to be believed, but that was her answer .Realizing how stupid he had sounded, Frank quickly changed track. "I mean ... when are you taking Level 10?"

"Three months," Rose replied.

"But ... people spend years getting ready for Level 8! You've been working on 10 for a year and you're taking it in a few months?" Rose nodded.

"Dad likes me to do exams sooner than everyone else."

"You're telling me," Oscar said incredulously. "You're taking an exam that only 9 people have ever passed, you've prepared for a year when even normal Uni takes three years, and you say your Dad likes you to take exams early? Rose, you're 14!" His voice was rising to a shout by the end of this. Again the mute nod. Oscar was ready to go and find Mr Gupta and kill him. It definitely didn't sound as though Rose had had much of a childhood if she was already taking Level 10. "How old were you when you took Level 7?" Frank had said that this was the usual level for MI9 scientists.

"Nine," came the quiet reply.

"You could have been working in MI9 labs from teh age of _nine?" _Frank repeated dumbly. "Right, that's it. Rose, you must have taken Level 1 when you were ..."

"Five," Rose broke in. "I took several of the lower levels a year. Dad said that they were easy enough."

"Wait a second," Oscarsaid. "Your Dad said that you had to always get 100% on your exams. Does that mean that..."

"I've got 100% in all of them? Yeah," Rose said. "When I took my Physics degree, I missed two marks on the final exam. It was _horrible_." She shuddered slightly at the unpleasant memory.

"That is the final straw," Frank said. "I'm calling the head of MI9 and the rest of the team. Oscar, will you take Rose to one of the spare rooms and talk for a bit while I fill her in." Oscar nodded and slung his arm around Rose's small shoulders. She leaned her head against his chest, and he led her into the room he had slept in the last night. Pulling her so that she was sitting on the bed next to her, Oscar started to gently question her like he knew Frank wanted him to.

"You OK, Rosie?" he asked to start, and she nodded, slipping her hand into his. "You said that you got the paper for Level 10 by hacking in to MI9?" Again she nodded, suddenly seeming exhausted. "So you've been hacking into MI9 since you were..."

"Five, that's right," Rose said tiredly. Oscar, even in the midst of everything he heard, felt a fresh wave of shock. MI9's database was meant to be ultra-secure, and yet it had been compromised by a five year old.

"Were you always doing exams?" he asked gently, and she nodded.

"Always," she said. "Dad said that there was nothing else I needed to do. I've never even been to a park with him." A terrible sadness had crept into her voice. "In fact, I've never been to a park except on a mission. And then we hardly have time to enjoy it." Oscar tightened his arm around Rose. It was heartbreaking that it was one of her greatest wishes seemed to be just to go to a park.

"Oh, Rosie. That's not much of a childhood," he sighed. Now he knew why asking if she had ever left her room when he was Oscar Wilde had hurt her so much. She hadn't. It was school or bedroom, working.

"It's OK now, Oscar. Ever since you and Carrie came." Oscar was slightly puzzled at this.

"Not when Blane and Daisy came? They were first." Rose shrugged slightly.

"Not so much as you two. I never fit in very well with them. I think I was a bit of a burden on them - sometimes I felt I couldn't do anything right. It was the same with Lennie. I remember one mission..." Here she trailed off.

"Yes?" Oscar pushed, wanting the full story.

"It was nothing really. But some man had stolen the dark stones and was going to put them together, bringing the country's power supply to a halt. He called MI9, I picked up. Lennie told me to keep him talking so that he could try and trace the signal, but after a few minutes he just hung up without warning. Of course, it was my fault, even though I had no idea it was coming. Later that same day, he called again, and again I tried to keep him talking, but he seemed to know that we'd be trying to trace him because he once again hung up really unexpectedly. Lennie was so annoyed, and he didn't understand that there was nothing I could do about it." Oscar squeezed her shoulders. He knew that telling all this after such a long time was not going to be easy for Rose.

"Rosie, that was really unfair of Lennie, but you must have known he didn't mean it." A small nod. "Um..." Oscar was not quite sure how to start the next topic. "Er...you know last night, your dad told you to remember Physics degree?" Rose stiffened under his arm, but gave a tiny nod in confirmation. "You want to tell me what that means?" he asked softly. Again Rose nodded, nad seemed about to start, when she caught herself and shook her head. Then she nodded again. Then she shook her head again. Then she turned slightly and hid her face in Oscar's chest. Pulling her into a closer hug, Oscar tried to reassure her. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, Rosie. But it might help to get it off your chest." A miniscule nod into his chest, before Rose pulled away again and scooted backwards until her back was against the wall. Oscar copied, sitting in the same position next to her. Rose took a deep breath and began.

"Dad's always wanted me to get 100% in my exams. Or I redo them. He says that there isn't a point in taking them if I'm not going to pass with full marks. A few years ago, I took my Physics degree. Not because Dad wanted me to, but because one of the other exams I was doing required a Physics degree before you were allowed to enter. I didn't study that much, because I was working mainly for this other exam, which was a lot harder. But when I took the Physics degree paper, I passed, but" a shudder, "I missed two points. Dad was _furious_. He..." here she broke off. Oscar could see easily that this was a hard topic. "He locked...me in my bedroom...for two weeks...with only...water...and cereal. Didn't see anyone, not even...Dad, only...Cammie...because she sneaked in one day." Oscar was aghast. This was child abuse, pure and simple.

"I'm going to talk to Frank quickly, Rosie, OK?" he asked quietly, wanting to tell Frank about this immediately. Rose nodded and let herself fall sideways, so that she was lying curled up on the bed. She shut her eyes, and as Oscar looked back as he reached the door, he realized that she had already fallen asleep. After all, it was only six in the morning, and Rose had had very little sleep.

As soon as the door swung shut behind him, Oscar ran into the main HQ. He saw Frank and Lennie standing there surrounded by Carrie, Daisy and Blane, all who were looking annoyed and confused about being called in so early. "We really need to ask the villains to work to a schedule, let us get some sleep," Blane was grumbling. Frank broke in as Oscar came and stood next to him. Carrie had already noticed his worried and angry expression.

"This isn't about villains, Blane," he said gravely.

"Ah, what? You got us out of bed just for some training? That is too low, mate," Blane was obviously not a mornings person.

"Not that either, Blane. No, this is about Rose." All the team straightened.

"Is Rose alright?" Daisy asked sharply. Frank indicated to Oscar that he should answer.

"Right now, she's sleeping," Oscar verified. "But...we found out why she was always in so early." Everyone exchanged glances. "Frank, will you tell please?"

"We modified Rose's pencil so that we could hear everything going on around it. When she was at home, we heard several things that made us uneasy, so when she turned up in school we called her down. After asking her some questions we were really worried." At this point, there was an incoming video call from the head of MI9.

"You asked for a meeting, London?" she began in a brisk manner.

"Yes Ma'am," Frank said. "I was just filling the agents in. Agent Cole and I had been getting worried about Agent Gupta, and we put her under surveillance. Hearing several things that concerned us, we called her in as soon as she came into school this morning at 5.00. Several issues have come up." Everyone was looking worried now. "Her father has been forcing her to take far more exams than is healthy. She has been hacking into the MI9 databases since the age of 5, stealing the Level Tests and being forced to take them and get 100% or face the consequences." Here Oscar broke in.

"Excuse me, Ma'am. I've been talking to Ros...Agent Gupta. From what she has told me, she has not had a childhood. One of her dearest wishes seems to be to visit a park properly. She started taking Level Tests when she was 5, and is now working for 10. She also told me what happened when she once missed two marks on an exam. She was locked in her room for two weeks running, with no contact with anyone except her dog. The only food she was given was cereal and water. In my mind this is child abuse, pure and simple." Shocked noises were coming from the MI High team at Oscar's story. IT also was evident on the face of the head of MI9.

"This is disgraceful. London, expect a team of agents to arrive shortly. I want the school closed for the morning, see to it ASAP." The agents quickly left to carry out her word.

* * *

Five minutes later, Oscar, who had been sent up to the road to wait for the agents, saw a sleek black car with tinted windows coming swiftly down the street. The number plate matched the one he had been given, and so he waved the car over. Once the agents in the car had given the password - Australia - and shown their ID cards, Oscar led them into the building and let them in to HQ. As soon as they were down, the agents nodded to Frank, before turning to Oscar. "Cole. Where does Gupta live?" the agent who seemed to be in charge asked. Oscar gave them Rose's address, and as they left, turned and headed back to his temporary room, where he had left Rose sleeping. When he opened the door he saw her open her eyes.

"Hey Rosie," he said quietly. "You OK?" She nodded. "I need to talk to you if that's alright?" Again the nod. "Has your dad ever...hit you?" Tears welled up in the smaller girl's eyes and she shrunk back from Oscar slightly. The answer was clear. Yes, he had.

A red rage threatened to engulf Oscar. He was having trouble thinking past wanting to throttle the man who had done this to Rosie. Knowing that Mr Gupta would be at base soon, he forced himself into calmness before sitting down and moving to hug his tiny teammate. But Rose shrunk back slightly, and the first tear fell down her face. "Hey, Rosie, I'm not going to hurt you," Oscar tried to reassure her, horrified at this reaction. Slowly, she stopped shrinking away, and Oscar gently and steadily moved to put his arm around her. Once he had, Rose leant her head on his shoulder and turned so that she was hiding her face from the world.

After only a few seconds, Rose pulled away, her composure regained. This rapid recovery from the sadness and terror that had been on her face only moments ago shocked Oscar, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he stood up and held out his hand. Rose took it and also stood up. Oscar had been expecting her to then let go, but she didn't, so he led her into main HQ. When Frank heard footsteps, he stopped talking on comms to Daisy, Carrie and Blane, who were keeping any non-agents away from the school, and walked quickly over. Oscar could feel Rose shrink back slightly, but she stood her ground, the only indication of her distress a slight tightening of her hand in his. Pulling her a bit closer, Oscar put his arm around her shoulders. Frank had stopped a few paces away, and sent Oscar a questioning look. He had asked Oscar to ask Rose about physical violence. Oscar gave a small but grim nod, confirming Frank's suspicions.

"Are you alright, Rose?" Frank asked, looking at her concernedly. She gave him her usual smile.

"I'm fine, thank you Frank," she replied, sounding exactly as she did every day. Only slowly was Oscar beginning to realise how good an actress Rose was to conceal all this for so long. Frank gave Rose a dubious look but let it slide.

"Well, the head of MI9 has said that as it is no longer possible for you to stay with your father, MI9 will provide a new home. As of yet, the location is unsure, and obviously it will be as close to St Hopes as possible so that you can continue here, but we have to...consider the possibility that this will not be possible." Rose looked disbelieving.

"You mean...I might have...to leave...MI High?" she asked slowly. When Frank nodded, Oscar nearly exploded with outrage.

"That can't happen! We need Rose! She can't leave! Rose is irreplaceable! She's been with us for so long..." But here he was cut off by Frank.

"I didn't say that it will happen, Oscar, just that it might. What is certain is that Rose has slept at her house for the last time. The head of MI9 has ruled that she will go back and get her stuff, and then leave it forever." Rose looked relived at this.

"But where will I stay until I have somewhere new to live?" she asked.

* * *

Thank you to everyone for your continued support of this story! The final chapters are slowly forming on my computer, but please be patient, because I am getting an _obscene _amount of homework and am therefore only finding time to write at around 2am in the morning. But I hope to have the next chapter up within a week.

Thanks again, and please review!


	23. Chapter 23

Thank you for your patience! Here's Chapter 23  
**I don't own MI High**

* * *

"Well, Rose, you know that you are always welcome to stay here if you don't want to go to a friend's house," Frank offered. Rose nodded slowly.

"How long will it be until I have somewhere new?" she asked dubiously. Oscar couldn't blame her - while HQ was nice, you wouldn't want to live there for an extended period.

"I don't know Rose, it could be anywhere in between a week and a month," Frank started, but was interrupted by a beeping from the computers signalling an incoming video message. Frank clicked on it, and the head of MI9 appeared on-screen.

"Agents London, Cole, Gupta," she greeted them perfunctorily. "London, we have found temporary accommodation for Agent Gupta." Frank and Rose began to express their relief and Rose her gratitude, but they were cut off. "However, using this accommodation requires another person's agreement - as you know all the occupants have to agree. Well, one has, but we need to ask the other." Oscar was confused about why they had been called when the house was not a definite place for Rose to live for a while, when she turned to him. "Cole, would you object to Gupta living with you until we have found her a permanent residence? The agent that you live with is fine with this, and it awaits your approval." Oscar was slightly stunned - he had not been expecting this at all. However, he managed to stutter out a sentence that said rather incoherently that he was fine with it. The head of MI9 looked relieved. "Perfect. London and Cole, once you get the all-clear you are to go with Gupta to her house so that she can collect her possessions. Cole will then escort you to his house," she directed at Rose, who was squeezing Oscar's hand happily. Then she abruptly ended the call.

"Perfect!" Frank exclaimed. Rose and Oscar nodded in agreement. "Oscar, the all-clear will come in about five minutes when MI9 arrive at Rose's house. Why don't you go and get dressed properly?" For Oscar was still only dressed in his pyjamas with a jacket over the top, in contrast to Rose's full spy gear and Frank's immaculate suit. Grinning, embarrassed, Oscar turned and ran off to where his clothes were, threw on his spy gear, and was back out in the five minutes Frank had predicted. Sure enough, the communicator on the desk buzzed three times, which was the signal for the all-clear, and so Frank, Rose and Oscar headed out of HQ up to the main school building.

As it was still only 6am, the school was deserted...and parts were flooded, as this was the scheme Blane, Daisy and Carrie had set up to make sure that the school was closed for the morning. The spies ran out of the main entrance, where they were ambushed by Carrie, who seemed to pop up out of nowhere and gave Rose a massive hug. "OK, Rosie?" she asked just like she did every day. Normality seemed to reassure rose, and she responded happily to the affirmative. Then the three spies ran out to the road and down the streets to Rose's house. Just as they rounded the corner, a black car came past travelling fast.

"MI9," Frank said as they ran up to the front door of Rose's house. Oscar nodded and stepped forwards to kick the door down, before he was stopped by a familiar quiet voice.

"Don't you think kicking the door in might just get the neighbour's attention? I have a much easier way of getting into the house," Rose said with laughter clear in her voice. From the pocket of her jacket she then produced a key. "House keys, perhaps?"

"There's a reason that you are the brains in the team," Oscar agreed, taking the keys from Rose and trying them all until he found the one that opened the door. Rose darted in ahead of him and jogged to the end of the corridor that the door opened into, keying in a four-digit number on a keypad that stopped the beeping noise the alarm had made. Oscar thought that it was definitely easier to break into a house that belonged to one of your friends if that friend was with you! "So, what stuff do you need, Rose?" he asked, and Rose was evidently about to answer when there came a scratching noise from upstairs.

"Cammie!" Rose called, and ran up the stairs, Frank and Oscar close behind her. She opened the door of a room at the back of the house, releasing a small, brown dog that was evidently thrilled to see her owner so soon after she had left. "Poor Cammie, did Dad shut you up again?" Rose asked as she picked the excited dog up. "Oscar, Frank, meet Cammie." she then out the dog back down. "Cammie, friends," she said pointing at the two spies, who were standing there, quite shocked at the level Rose seemed to think this dog understood. Their surprise only increased when Cammie padded over to them, sat down in front of them, and solemnly held out her paw. Rose laughed at their astonishment. "Well, go on, say hello to Cammie," she instructed them. They didn't move. "I had to do something except study or I'd...have gone mad," Rose explained. "Cammie pretty much understands English, now, don't you girl?" she said. First to get over this, Oscar bent down and shook the dog's paw. Cammie woofed in a friendly way, before standing up and walking back over to Rose. "Anyway, this is my room," the 14-year-old announced, walking into the room she had recently freed Cammie from. Oscar followed her in.

It was possibly the most emotionless room that had ever belonged to a teenage girl. The walls were whitewashed, there was a wooden floor that desperately needed varnishing and a single light hung from the ceiling. The bed was low and uncomfortable-looking, the chest of drawers at the bottom of it looking as though it would never contain all the clothes a human usually had. The dominant feature of the room was the desk, a rickety structure that was piled high with beaten-up textbooks and paper covered with notes and equations. There was also a small bookcase next to the desk, crammed full with old, battered copies of books. After a quick glance at the titles, Oscar realized that not one of them was a novel or fiction. They were all textbooks for Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, as well as subjects that Oscar had never heard of that seemed to be very advanced. A few biographies of famous scientific figures were scattered among these. All this had been crammed into a small room and left about enough space for three people to stand in as long as they had no particular wish to move around.

Rose walked over to the bed and from underneath pulled a tiny suitcase that looked about ready to fall apart at the seams. The suitcase she had taken to the orphanage had been better quality. She dumped this on the bed and opened it, before walking over to the chest of drawers and pulling out several school shirts, skirts, blazers and ties, fitting them all into the suitcase. Then she packed some tattered track suit bottoms and tops, an old pair of trainers, and one book that she retrieved from underneath the bed, before buckling up the suitcase and pulling it off the bed. Oscar was shocked at the small amount of things that she wanted to take with her from her old life. Silently, he followed Rose out, down the stairs and into the kitchen.

The difference between Rose's room and the rest of the house was marked. The almost Spartan-like decor of her room was almost the opposite of the rest of the house, which was furnished with expensive items. The kitchen was spacious and had top-of-the-range equipment. Rose headed straight for a drawer next to the sink, and when she pulled it open Oscar saw that it contained certificates. Tens and tens, possibly hundreds, chronicling his teammate's many achievements, competition wins, and passed exams. Most of these Rose threw to the side without a second glance, although Frank was quietly collecting up the ones with MI9 logos on and any others that he thought it would be useful for Rose to have later on so that she didn't have to re-take all the exams, and it was only when she reached the bottom of the drawer did Rose slow down. Now she was reading each one, looking, searching for something. Finally she pulled one out and held it. It was not a formal-looking one, like all the others - in fact it didn't qualify as a certificate at all. Silently, she held it out to Oscar, who took it and glanced down. It was several old pieces of paper held together with a paper clip. The top one had been hand-decorated with drawings of a little girl - evidently Rose - from a baby to a toddler. The drawings were beautiful, accurate to the last detail, and so life-like that Oscar could almost hear the giggles and happy chatter that was present in each picture.

They were only pencil, but someone had spent a long time on them. There was a sleeping baby Rose lying in a cot, a tiny Rose standing on her chair to blow out candles on a birthday cake, a toddler bundled up in many coats and scarves coming down a playground slide. Happy memories rose almost tangibly from the page. In the midst of all these drawings the words 'Rose Patel' were written in a beautiful calligraphic style. The paper was yellowed and delicate from age, and the old-style of handwriting reinforced the image of these pages having survived from a past age. Frank was standing behind Oscar's shoulder, also looking at the page, and Rose was standing in front. She reached forwards and gently turned over the front page.

The paper beneath was covered in the same beautiful calligraphy as the 'Rose Patel' had been on the first page. In the margins there were more pictures, again drawn so realistically that Oscar could almost fool himself into thinking that they were real. "Read it," Rose said quietly from in front of him. Oscar turned his eyes to the top of the page, and realized that it was a letter. "My darling Rose," it started...

* * *

_My Darling Rose,_

_I am so sorry. So sorry that I have to leave you, so sorry that things didn't work out as they should have done. So sorry that I failed you. It will be many years until you read this, and by then I will have gone completely. I have asked your father to give this letter to you when you turn ten. You should be old enough to understand now, Rose. _

_Ever since you were born, from that very first moment, I knew that you were something special. There has always been a spark inside you, a bright lamp that refuses to be extinguished or dimmed. You were not crying when you were born. The first time you looked at me, your expression was filled with a solemn intelligence, a sense of complete understanding. It was as if you knew exactly what was going on. From that moment onwards, my centre of gravity shifted into you._

_As you grew, I learned your steady smile, your light giggle, the expression on your face when a sum just wouldn't come right. I could read you like a book. Every emotion was written across your face as clear as daylight, but I was the only person who could see it. One of the first things that I taught you was that everything was beautiful. That there was not one ugly object in the world. I tried my best, in the few short years we had together, to show you how to find that beauty. In all my years as a teacher I had never had a more responsive pupil as my daughter. You valued the most ordinary object simply for the beauty of it. I started, also, to teach you to see the inner beauty of people. Obviously, this is much harder, but like every challenge you are given you managed it like a professional. At the age of three you could point out the beauty in any object. _

_But of course, your father always wanted to use this intelligence towards the academics. He would have you work from dawn till dusk, however much I told him that it was not the right upbringing for a child. Now that I'm gone, I hope with all my heart and soul that you will have a proper childhood before you go on to save the world. I can see you doing that easily. _

_You do it for me, every day._

_I don't know if you remember Red. You were only one. Already you were talking like a ten-year old. We went to stay with my parents for Christmas, just you and me. Your father, as normal, was working. From the moment you toddled in the door, you fell in love with their German Shepherd, a massive dog with the gentlest disposition ever. She was called Red, and for the week that we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa, the two of you were inseparable. She would lie under the table as we ate, stand guard by your pillow as you slept. Grandma, Grandpa and I would watch the two of you playing outside in the garden, tumbling and laughing. Red would come the instant she heard your voice. When we took her for her daily walk, you would insist on holding the lead, which gained us many odd looks and even the occasional inquiry as to whether it was safe to let a tiny girl hold such a large, ferocious-looking dog. You found this hilarious, and when it happened would call Red to your side and perform the many tricks you had taught her in a week. Sit, Lie Down, Shake, Roll Over, Beg, Hug (when she would put her two front paws on your shoulders)...all these and more. Needless to say, everyone was astonished. It was only the third day of our stay when Rose and Red became one entity, Rosie Red, with one name doing for both of you._

_I hope that one day we might meet again. But now I cannot stay. I hope that you find friends who value you, who appreciate your many skills, not just academic. I have no doubts that you will not have an easy life, Rosie Red. Your father has always wanted to use your incredible intelligence to his own gain. I hope that life has not been, and will not be, too hard._

_Remember this always;_

_I love you._

_Mum  
xxx_

* * *

Rose saw when Oscar and Frank had finished reading, and turned the page. Oscar saw now a whole page that was devoted to a painting done in watercolour. It showed Rose, dressed in a pretty red dress and aged about one, standing next to a dog that came nearly up to her neck. The widest of smiles adorned Rose's face, and one of her hands was resting on the dog, who sat like a sentry next to her. Rose turned the page again. Another painting, of the same girl and dog. Rose was now wrapped up in many coats and scarves, and was tumbling around on the grass with Red. Next, Rose asleep in bed, Red sitting bolt upright in the near-darkness by her side, guarding her from the night. Next, Rose and Red 'hugging'. Red's paws were on Rose's shoulders, and her arms were around the large dog. An expression of joy and contentment was on her face. Finally, Rose and Red lying on a shaggy carpet in front of a fire. Rose was in her dressing gown and slippers, and her head was leaning on the great dog. One hand was lying on Red's neck as they stared into the fire together.

"That was when I still believed in magic," came Rose's voice, sounding as though she was holding back tears. "Red and I were waiting for Father Christmas to come down the chimney." Past the tears, there was an unbelievable sadness in her voice at the memory of times past. "Mum was wrong about Dad. The day she left I started working for my Maths degree. Since then, I've done nothing but exams." Oscar was horrified. He had know by now that Rose's childhood was far below what it should have been. But that she had known better, happier times somehow made it worse. Rose sniffed once, before pulling herself back together. "Shall we go?" she asked, unhooking Cammie's lead from the back of the kitchen door. Oscar and Frank nodded silently. Rose clipped the lead onto Cammie's collar, picked up her suitcase, and walked out of the door and down the street without a backwards glance at the place she had known as home for her whole life. Frank slowly followed, and Oscar walked out last, still staring at the paintings. In all of them, he realized, there was an expression in Rose's face that he had never seen there - the feeling of safety.

When they reached the turning to the main road, Oscar and Rose went one way towards Oscar's house, while Frank went the other towards St Hopes. A silent five minutes later, and Oscar and Rose were standing outside Oscar's home. Oscar knocked, and seconds later the door was opened by Agent Wilson, who Oscar was living with. He was a very friendly man, and Oscar knew that he would have accepted the idea of having Rose come to stay with open arms. "Hey Paul," Oscar greeted him. "This is Rose Gupta."

"Rose, so glad to meet you. I'm afraid you're going to have to share a room with Oscar for the time being until we can get the study converted for you..."

"Oh please, don't go to any trouble," Rose said hurriedly. "Honestly, I'm perfectly happy on the sofa or something..."

"Rose, don't be preposterous. If you are going to be living with us we certainly cannot have you sleeping on the sofa. Oscar doesn't mind, I'm sure."

"Not at all, Rosie," Oscar grinned at his little teammate. "It will be just like the orphanage." Rose smiled back.

"If you're sure..." she said uncertainly. Oscar nodded firmly and led her up the stairs to his room. Big as it was, another bed fit in easily. Rose neatly slid her suitcase underneath the spare bed and stood up again. "We probably have to get back," she said. Oscar agreed, and the two of them ran back off to St Hopes.

They arrived in HQ to see Mr Gupta sitting in a chair that had been placed facing the three by the computers, which were occupied by Frank, the head of MI9 and Stark. Lennie was standing by Frank and Daisy, Carrie and Blane were flanking Mr Gupta, their body language aggressive. The noise of the lift had caused them all to turn to see who had come down. "Agent Gupta," the head of MI9 said, and Rose nodded her head respectfully. "You have left all your things?" Again Rose nodded. "Good. Will you please go and talk with Agent Harpe?" A woman agent emerged from the corridor, and Rose went with her into one of the rooms. Oscar went to join Carrie, Blane and Daisy. "Right, Mr Gupta. You will be taken to an MI9 prision to await trial. Agents Blane and Stewart will escort you to the car." Mr Gupta didn't even try to protest, he seemed too shocked about what was going on. He let himself be marched away. Oscar couldn't really blame his astonishment, although he hated the man with every bone in his body. It wasn't every day that you discovered that your daughter was an MI9 agent, as well as being arrested.

* * *

The day passed slowly. Oscar, Blane, Carrie and Daisy returned to classes after the school reopened, and Rose joined them a bit later. She had been talking with Agent Harpe for a long time, and when she had come out looked as though a massive weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Tension Oscar had never even noticed existed had left her frame, she was less reserved and her voice was no longer so quiet that he had to strain to hear it. She was changed drastically in the best possible way. By the end of the day, even teachers were looking at her, slightly confused with the class braniac. She volunteered answers to questions without having to be asked, was smily and generally happy. When Oscar was walking back to his house with her it seemed as though she could hardly keep from bouncing along the road instead of walking. It puzzled Oscar a bit, even though he had seen how unhappy Rose had been at home. Her father had just been taken to prision, and she was having to refrain from singing. For him, it was different, he justified - his mother was evil and he had known that for years. But Rose had lived with her dad since she was a baby...oh well. He wasn't going to dwell on it.

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Hey everyone! I'm thinking one more chapter to clear everything up, and then an epilouge that I already have in my head. How does that sound?

Please review! It makes me happy :)


	24. Chapter 24

So this is going to be the last chapter, although there may be an epilogue. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and read!  
**I don't own MI High.**

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_One week later..._

Oscar woke up late at night to the sounds of Rose having a bad dream. He was very familiar with them now, and wondered why he had never thought anything of them at Penhallows. He slid out of bed and walked across his room in the dark, knowing exactly where Rose's bed was. When he reached it, he sat down on it and gently shook her shoulder. "Rosie," he called quietly, "Rosie, wake up. It's just a dream. Shhh." Rose started slightly and opened her eyes, a single tear running slowly down her face. Oscar slowly rubbed soothing circles on her arm. "You OK now?" he asked, care and worry lacing his words.

"Yeah. Sorry for waking you up," came the small reply. Rose's voice was trembling slightly in the aftermath of her nightmare. Oscar could feel her sitting up, and he moved so that he was next to her. She put her head on his shoulder. "What time is it?" she asked. Oscar checked the luminous alarm clock on the bedside table.

"Already 6.00. Not really worth going back to sleep if we're going to be waking up in half an hour anyway. It's so dark outside, I really thought it was 3 or something!" Rose agreed, slipping her hand into his. Oscar had quickly learnt that it was best to start immediately on a new subject when she had a bad dream or memories.

"Mmm. Nearly Christmas already. I wonder if I'll still be here at Christmas?"

"Hope so," Oscar said. "You're right, it's only, what, two weeks away now? Surely Frank won't move you so fast. Have you bought anyone presents yet?"

"Yes, I've done all my shopping. Bet you haven't done any!" She playfully dug him in the ribs.

" I have! You need to have faith in me. You are going to pay for that," Oscar mock-growled, and tickled her slightly. Rose squealed and jumped forwards.

"Not fair! Fine, I'm sorry. I'm going to get dressed," she giggled, as she flipped the light switch and stood up. Oscar smiled. Rose was so different even after only a month living with him. She was always smiling or giggling, was sunny and bright and while she was still the school braniac did not spend nearly so much time studying. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Oscar and Carrie were starting to see the same expression on her face and in her bearing that was in the paintings her mum had done - that of being safe and happy. It was impossible that she would have visibly grown in only a month, but she seemed taller, as though she was walking slightly off the ground. Her slightly slumped posture had gone, as had the glasses she had hidden behind - she now wore contacts all the time, instead of just in HQ and on missions. Rose was a different person.

Ten minutes later, Rose emerged from the bathroom, hair neatly brushed into a ponytail and school uniform as immaculate as normal. "Pancakes?" she asked, and Oscar nodded eagerly. Rose put on her fuzzy slippers - that Paul (the agent) had bought her - and walked out of the room. Quickly getting dressed, Oscar followed her downstairs, and was met with the delicious smell of cooking pancakes. He sat down on the kitchen table and Cammie, who had also come with Rose, padded over and sniffed him.

"Heya," he said, leaning down and stroking the little brown dog. "Smells great, Rosie."

"Thanks," she grinned. "Do you think Paul will want some?" Oscar shot her a look. "Sorry, stupid question. Cammie, go and get Paul," she instructed, and the dog padded out of the kitchen. Oscar stared after her, still shocked at the level of comprehension she showed.

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An hour later, Oscar and Rose turned up at St Hopes and made their way to the gym, where they found Carrie. Together the trio walked into the form room, Oscar and Carrie on either side of Rose. She was still two years younger than everyone in it, and still a lot smaller. But she seemed to have grown slightly in the past week, and didn't look so dwarfed among all the 16-year-olds. Another change was that she didn't shrink back from them anymore, trying to hide so that nobody would speak to her. Obviously, she was still tiny, easily two heads smaller than Oscar and without a doubt the smallest in the class. But people were beginning to realise that she was there, that Rose was actually a person. Hopefully, this was the start of a happier period in Rose's life, Oscar thought quietly to himself.

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Well, that's the last chapter! *sniffles* Thanks so much to all my reviewers and readers, I'm so glad that you've enjoyed it. In answer to several PM's, I'm very open to doing a sequel but have no ideas as to what could possibly happen in it, so message me any ideas!

Thanks again, please review!


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